January 19, 2012
Scotland
Scotland
Windfarms ‘destroy’ land
By Jane Candlish, The Press and Journal, 19 January 2012
By Jane Candlish, The Press and Journal, 19 January 2012
Losing wild land to windfarms is like the loss of virginity, a Highland councillor said yesterday.
Councillor David Henderson’s comments came during a debate on the local authority’s draft guidance for onshore wind energy development.
The council is consulting on the draft advice and has so far received 139 comments from the public, anti-windfarm campaigners and energy companies.
A number of respondents have commented that the council needs to take account of national policy on wild land.
The draft guidance published by the council seeks to define a number of different scales of development, according to criteria of capacity, height, number of turbines and rotor diameter.
Councillors will consider a full summary of the issues and comments at their meeting in March.
Mr Henderson, the Liberal Democrat member for Inverness-Ness-side, said that wild land was the area’s “scarcest resource” and its most vulnerable.
Mr Henderson added: “Its loss is a kin to a loss of virginity. It takes one windfarm to destroy it.”
However Inverness Provost Jimmy Gray warned that the council had to take account of the Scottish Government’s national policy to increase the number of windfarms.
He said: “There could be serious costs against us if we don’t comply.”
His comments come a day after a council committee agreed to lodge an objection to the Allt Duine windfarm near Kincraig.
The proposals for 31 turbines will be decided at a public local inquiry.
URL to article: https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2012/01/19/windfarms-destroy-land/