April 29, 2011
Scotland

Blackcraig fight to continue

by Stuart Gillespie, Galloway News, icdumfries.icnetwork.co.uk 28 April 2011by Stuart Gillespie, Galloway News, icdumfries.icnetwork.co.uk 28 April 2011

Protestors are continuing their battle against a controversial windfarm development – despite plans clearing the final hurdle last month.

Members of Galloway Landscape and Renewable Energy (GLARE) are to ask the next Scottish Government to take another look at the Blackcraig development of 23 turbines standing 365 feet high.

It was given approval by the then energy minister, Jim Mather, on the final day before the Scottish Parliament dissolved last month.

That came after Scottish and Southern Energy appealed a council decision in 2007 to reject their plans.

The government approval cleared the way for them to press ahead with the development.

Scottish Power Transmission has now released their plans for the work needed to connect Blackcraig – and three other proposed windfarms in the Glenkens – to the National Grid.

But GLARE, which was set up in 2004 to campaign against the Blackcraig proposal, is refusing to give up.

In a recent advert in a community magazine, they stated: “The incoming government of the Scottish people should reconsider the recent decision of the previous government to allow 23 x 365 ft tall wind turbines along the prominent ridgeline known as Blackcraig in the Glenkens on the grounds that it will be visually intrusive and damage the tourist economy of the Stewartry.”

When the decision was announced last month, GLARE’s Alison Chapman said they still believed the proposal would be “environmentally damaging” and an “erratic and intrusive industrial generator imposed within an area of outstanding natural beauty”.

However, Roland Chaplain of Glenkens Sustainable Development Group believed the development would be positive and would be a small price to pay for providing a renewable energy source.

URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2011/04/29/blackcraig-fight-to-continue/