November 6, 2006
U.K.
U.K.
Ness Community Council in Lewis has demanded that a public inquiry be held into plans to build a massive windfarm beside villages.
Local representatives have written to the Scottish Executive after a unanimous vote at a recent community forum.
They want a halt on planning permission being passed for the enormous scheme which would industrialise the environmentally protected moorland, impact on crofters’ grazings and dominate the flat landscape.
Lewis Windpower, a partnership between Amec and British Energy, intends to construct about 200 of Europe’s tallest turbines, 100 miles of extra wide roads, five huge quarries and nine substations in the north of Lewis
It includes about 200 huge steel pylons snaking for miles across the flat landscape from Ness and Bragar to Barvas and around the back of Stornoway towards Arnish.
About 70 of the huge machines would be built close to houses in Ness.
Western Isles Council invoked residents’ fury by approving the giant scheme, despite numerous local ballots against.
Ness Community Council claim that there was been a lack of consultation, thought to be in breach of national planning guidelines, and a sidestepping of community involvement.
Alleged anomalies in Amec’s proposal are also being highlighted.
Chairman Alex John Macleod said there were “strong feelings” that a public inquiry should be held as “the only course of action left for a community which faces having its life and that of future generations blighted by this planning application”.
URL to article: https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2006/11/06/residents-demand-inquiry-on-isle-turbines-proposal/