Rural ruin

Last Thursday a debate took place in Holyrood to address the concerns or rural residents of Scotland have about SSEN'S plans to cover the countryside with industrial junk to enable, in the words of SSEN, “thousands more onshore wind turbines”. Around ten per cent of the MSPS were in the chamber, despite most being urged by their constituents to attend.

SSEN’S proposals are a national matter, not just a rural one. SSEN’S proposals, if permitted, will bring about the greatest changes to the culture and the Scottish landscape in the last 200 hundred years. And the damage will continue, as rural Scotland becomes the dumping ground for energy projects.

John Mason MSP, believes “scenery doesn’t pay the bills”. Kate Forbes MSP, believes tourism and renewables are a healthy mix. Yet it is undebatable that scenery pays the bills for thousands of people living and working in rural Scotland and tourists do not visit to see 868-acre substation sites (near Beauly, in Forbes’ constituency ), cross hatchings of mega-pylons and over-head lines, hydrogen plants, solar farms, megapump storage facilities, or battery storage units. These monstrosities are being proposed all over the country, with applications coming in by the dozen, weekly, because rural Scotland is now a Klondike.

Scotland is being treated like a developing nation – a cheap place to invest, exploit the resources, ignore the “natives”, and fill the money bags of shareholders whilst paying little or no taxes. None of this junk is for the people of Scotland. We are expected to suffer the destruction of our natural environment, the loss of value of our businesses and homes, the loss of use of prime agricultural land, the deterioration of our mental and physical health, and we have to accept the ruin of our children’s and grandchildren’s futures in rural Scotland.

Denise Davis Founding member of Communities B4 Power Companies,

Kiltarlity, Highland