Windfarm ‘would cause irrevocable damage’
Credit: By Mel Fairhurst, The Press and Journal, www.pressandjournal.co.uk 4 April 2011 ~~
Translate: FROM English | TO English
Translate: FROM English | TO English
Plans for a windfarm beside Monarch of the Glen country in the Highlands would cause “irrevocable damage to a cherished wild landscape”, national climbers’ leaders have warned.
The Mountaineering Council of Scotland is calling on politicians to back its fight against the proposed 31-turbine site at Allt Duine – about five miles north-west of Kingussie and west of Aviemore.
The body claims the development would ruin views in the Monadhliath mountains and is urging political parties to speak out against windfarm developments in the Highlands in the run-up to next month’s Scottish Parliament elections.
President Chris Townsend said: “It may be difficult to put a figure on economic benefits and by their very nature these locations do not have local communities to stand up for them in the planning system, but huge numbers of people care about wildness.”
He said the turbines planned for the Allt Duine site, on the doorstep of Cairngorms National Park, would be visible within a 20-mile radius.
“If all the proposed windfarms in this area are developed there would be 11 separate schemes visible from Cairn Gorm mountain,” said Mr Townsend.
“Scotland’s mountains are a precious wild land resource that once lost is gone forever.
“Like the John Muir Trust and other organisations, the Mountaineering Council of Scotland believes that windfarms in the wrong location destroy wild landscapes.
“Allt Duine is one such windfarm and should not be built.”
Feedback after a consultation by the firm behind the scheme, RWE npower renewables, showed the local community was divided over the turbines, which would each be more than 400ft tall to the blade tips.
A meeting for residents to air their views to members of Kingussie Community Council will be held tonight at Kincraig Community Hall at 7.30pm.
Plans are on display and can be viewed at the Highland Council offices in Glenurquhart Road or at Kincraig Post Office, Badenoch Library and Learning Centre and Aviemore Library.
People have until April 13 to submit their views.
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