September 17, 2011
Scotland

Proposed wind farm at Reston

Berwickshire News, www.berwickshirenews.co.uk 17 September 2011

The first step in establishing whether a potential wind farm would produce sufficient energy to be worth being put on prime quality agricultural land at Cairncross Farm, near Reston, has been taken – Scottish Borders councillors agreeing to a temporary 80 metre wind monitoring meteorological mast being erected on the site.

The mast is approximately 800 metres north of the A1 trunk road and 1.7 km north east of Reston.

The developers, Enertag, have also had pre-application discussions with planners and a request was made in June this year for a scopining opinion for a wind farm development.

Mindful of the fact that the temporary mast is just the first step in seeking planning permision for a wind farm, 59 local residents objected to the planning application.

However, their objections gave many reasons for why a wind farm should not be built on the farmland and councillors at Monday’s planning committee meeting were told that the application before them was for permission for the anemometer only, and comments about a future wind farm were not relevant to the proposal at this stage.

Planning permission was given for the mast to be up for a limited period of two years.

There are a number of current proposals for wind farms in the Reston area and a number of meeting and presentations are being held in the village hall over the coming weeks. When the community council meets on September 19, they will be discussing a planning application soon to be submitted for a wind farm development at Blackmains Farm. Another group will be holding a wind farm meeting on Friday, September 23, 6.30-9.30pm; and wind farm developers ENERTRAG are holding a community engagement event in the village hall on Saturday, October 8 9.30am -1pm.

URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2011/09/17/proposed-wind-farm-at-reston/