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Turbine trouble on the horizon
Credit: The Southern Reporter, www.thesouthernreporter.co.uk 28 October 2010 ~~
Only the most eagle-eyed among your readers will have spotted E.ON’s advertisement in last week’s edition.
Small in stature, it was nevertheless an important open invitation to all Borderers to attend one of three forthcoming public exhibitions setting out detailed plans for a large wind farm on the farmland of Legerwood, Corsbie and Boon, lying between – and close to – Lauder, Earlston, Gordon and Blainslie.
Twenty-one turbines are proposed, stretching in a line four miles long from near the A68 in the west of the site to the A6089 in the east. At around 420ft high (three times the height of the Peniel Heugh monument near Ancrum or, if you prefer, two-thirds the height of London’s Post Office Tower), I believe they would be the tallest turbines erected anywhere so far in the Borders and will be clearly visible from towns, villages and beauty spots throughout the region.
Quite apart from the current debate raging over just how efficient and environmentally-sound wind turbines actually are, the vast majority of Borderers believe we already have more than our fair share of wind farms. They realise that our precious landscapes simply cannot support any more of them without severe visual damage being done, harming our all-important tourism industry.
But the evidence these days is that the number of wind farm applications is on the increase. And wind farms are now spreading into the heart of the central Borders, ever nearer our main towns and other significant centres of population.
I urge everyone to take an interest now and wake up to the long- term harmful effects this “gold rush” is having on our countryside and on our reputation as one of the most beautiful parts of the country.
Wherever you live in the Borders, go along to one of E.ON’s exhibitions and see for yourself the scale of what is proposed – even if, judging from the size of their invitation, they don’t really want us there at all:
October 31, Earlston High School, 2-8pm; November 1, Lauder Public Hall, 2-8pm; November 2, Gordon Village Hall, 2-8pm.
It may be your area next.
David Watt
Legerwood
Earlston
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