Wind farm access row brews
A monumental row is brewing over the access route chosen by a power company for construction traffic to the Gordonbush wind farm in East Sutherland.
Five community councils have united in opposition to Scottish and Southern Energy’s decision to use the A9 through Golspie and Brora followed by the single-track Strath Brora road – one of the most scenic routes in the Highlands.
Angry community councillors are registering their protest by refusing to take part in discussions with SSE about community benefit from the wind farm, until the road access issue is completely resolved.
SSE placed a public notice in last week’s Northern Times to announce it had opted for the trunk road rather than an alternative route via a hill road built for the Kilbraur wind farm and accessed off the A9 at Drummuie, just south of Golspie.
The announcement alarmed local people who are concerned over the effect of abnormal loads rumbling through Golspie – where Main Street residents have already claimed heavy traffic is damaging their homes – and Brora. The suggestion has been bandied about locally that SSE abandoned the private Kilbraur route because landowners Sutherland Estates were demanding too much money for its use. This has been denied by the estate.
The strength of feeling came over loud and clear at a meeting of East Sutherland and Edderton ward forum in Helmsdale on Monday night. The forum is attended by representatives from Dornoch, Rogart, Golspie, Brora and Helmsdale community councils.
Brora community councillor Bill Faassen de Heer called for community benefit talks to be postponed. “There’s an awful lot of bad feeling in Brora about these large transport vehicles going across the bridge and down Victoria Road,” he said.
Mr Faassen de Heer claimed that the picturesque but narrow Strath Brora route, which winds alongside Loch Brora, would be “completely devastated by construction traffic”.
Highland Councillor Deirdre Mackay, Brora, agreed that feelings were running high locally. She said she was filled with dismay that SSE were not treating the views of local people more seriously.
Councillor Ian Ross, Golspie, commented: “Right from the start I have felt there is an obvious solution and that is to extend the road put in place for the Kilbraur wind farm. It is in the hands of SSE and the landowner. It is common sense and I would urge Golspie and Brora community councils to encourage SSE to recognise the unacceptability of the trunk road proposal.”
Rogart Community Council chairman Alistair MacIver pledged his backing to the Brora and Golspie councils as did Helmsdale chairwoman Evelyn Mackenzie and Dornoch representative Gordon Clunie. Mrs Mackenzie said: “We’re not going to sit back and just take it all.”It was agreed that a letter from the ward forum should be sent to SSE expressing these concerns and urging that the Kilbraur route be reviewed.
A spokesman for SSE, Justin Smith, said the company were extremely disappointed at the stance taken by the community councillors and in particular the decision not to discuss community benefit.
He confirmed that SSE had been negotiating with landowners involved over the use of the Kilbraur route and had come to an agreement with some of them, but not all.
“We have got the co-operation of some of the landowners but we have not been able to secure the co-operation of all of them, although there is no dispute,” he said.
“It would be wrong to suggest it was just down to one particular reason. It is a combination of reasons that has made the Kilbraur route not feasible for us.”
But Mr Smith insisted that the cost of using the Kilbraur route was not the main reason that it had been rejected, although it was one of the factors. He said the decision to use the trunk road and the Strath Brora route had been taken following extensive environmental, archaeological and engineering investigations of both options.
Also taken into consideration was the need for aggregate, most of which would come from borrow pits on the site, but higher quality aggregate would come from Uppat Quarry – which would necessitate vehicle movements through Brora in any case.
He also pointed out that the A9 option had been agreed with planners. He said it had been calculated the increase in heavy goods vehicle traffic through the two villages would be less than two per cent.
Mr Smith said: “This isn’t something that we have just looked at and not taken seriously. We have seriously looked at the alternative options but have concluded that the Strath Brora route is the best option.
“We don’t want to fly in the face of local communities’ views but we would like to think they would consider SSE as a responsible company that has looked at all the choices and come up with the most feasible one.
“We’re disappointed that we do not seem able to communicate to local people why we have come to the conclusion that is the best road. We want to continue discussions with local people and we understand their concerns.”
Sutherland Estates manager Chris Whealing told the Northern Times yesterday (Thursday): “We were surprised to read in last week’s Northern Times that, after many months of negotiations, Scottish and Southern Energy have decided to use the Golspie/Brora route when we thought we were still in discussions with them about the Kilbraur route. We would welcome continued dialogue with them over access via Kilbraur.”
28 August 2008
The copyright of this article is owned by the author or publisher indicated. Its availability here constitutes a "fair use" as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law as well as in similar "fair dealing" exceptions of the copyright laws of other nations, as part of National Wind Watch's effort to advance understanding of the environmental, social, scientific, and economic issues of large-scale wind power development. For more information, click here.
Blog it:
Tags: Wind power, Wind energy
|
