March 7, 2011
Scotland

Windfarm protesters head to Holyrood

The Press and Journal, www.pressandjournal.co.uk 7 March 2011

Windfarm protesters from across the country are preparing to take their fight to the Scottish Parliament.

Campaigners are chartering buses from Caithness, Inverness, Ayrshire and the Borders to show the strength of opposition to the growing number of giant turbines.

The march and rally through the centre of Edinburgh is planned for a week on Wednesday.

Demonstration organiser, Denise Davis, of White House, Ardblair, who has fought proposals for a wind park at Druim Ba said: “Thousands of people across Britain like myself have given up their day job to fight to save their quality of life and livelihood from being obliterated by a wind farm development.

“In the light of the government’s rather sly move – without public consultation – to lease our forests to wind farm developing electricity companies, I decided enough was enough and organised this protest.

“It’s a response to the decision to lease forests to the four highest bidding electricity companies and an opportunity to demonstrate our objection to the obliteration of Scotland’s landscape and to urge the government to look again at its energy policy.”

The Scottish Government last month announced plans to allow the four highest bidding European electricity firms to explore the possibility of building an additional 200 turbines on land owned by Forestry Commission Scotland.

The SNP administration at Holyrood has set itself a renewable energy production target of 31% of electricity demand by 2011, and 50% by 2020.

Objectors argue that heavily subsidised turbines can release more carbon dioxide than they will offset, with many planned for fragile terrain.

blight

They also complain that the machines are a blight on the landscape and threaten to destroy lifeline tourism.

The banner-carrying demonstrators plan to march from Edinburgh’s Princes Street Gardens, at noon on March 16, to the parliament building where they intend to hand over a stack of objectors’ letters.

The Druim Ba proposal is for 23 turbines, each almost 500ft tall, between Kiltarlity and Drumnadrochit.

URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2011/03/07/windfarm-protesters-head-to-holyrood/