April 21, 2008
Scotland

Wind farm opponents welcome LWP knock-back

Crofter Dina Murray said: “This is wonderful news. It means that the Lewis windfarm as we know it is out the window.

“This verifies that Western Isles Council and its vice-convenor Angus Campbell has completely missed the plot. They failed to appreciate what the people on Lewis were telling them.

“People are opposed to building turbines on the Lewis landscape unless it is on a small community scale for local power.

Ms Murray criticised the council for its campaign of “emotional blackmail” over employment prospects.

She stressed: “It was an outrageous claim over jobs at the Arnish yard. It is like holding a gun to the community’s head that Arnish needed to be propped up by this windfarm. That’s emotional blackmail of the people.

She said: “There are skilled men at Arnish qualified in turning out more than wind towers.”

Iain Macleod of giant -windfarm protest group MWT said: “This is the right decision. Four years ago LWP said this was the only part of the UK they could get away with such a scheme.

“The only way for LWP to go is out.”

He said: “They promised that if the people here did not want the windfarm then they would go away. But it took European environmental rules to finally tell them that it is no go.

“If LWP comes back with another windfarm application then they will face another fight.”

Mr Macleod said that hanging economic regeneration on one single development resulted in “four years of wasted opportunity for these islands.”

He said that cheap ferry fares through the forthcoming road equivelant tarrif offered a longer and more sustainable economic recovery which “windfarms on their own could not.”

Hebrides News

21 April 2008


URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2008/04/21/wind-farm-opponents-welcome-lwp-knock-back/