April 6, 2012
Scotland

We don’t want turbines here

Fife Today, www.fifetoday.co.uk 6 April 2012

A group of residents in Burntisland have vowed to fight plans to build three wind turbines near the town’s Binn Hill.

Locals, who stay near the proposed site, have formed a protest group which aims to strongly object to the project.

They say they have been told by the developer the turbines will be 100m high and are very concerned about the problems they may cause.

They are worried about: the damage to the landscape, the effect on walkers and cyclists who use the area, the impact on wildlife and birds, the noise and health effects on the nearby residents as well the overwhelming visual impact.

The move comes after the Press recently reported that the project would help to sustain local charities, which are behind the scheme.

Running costs

It said that if given the go-ahead, the income generated from the three turbines would be put towards the running costs of the Ecology Centre in Kinghorn and OYO (Scotland) in Burntisland.

But David Potts, who stays just 500m from Tournament Hill where one of the turbines will be sited, said: “The relentless drive of increasing wind power generation is destroying the landscape of Fife and is seriously affecting the quality of life of people who live close to these developments.

“The opportunism of landowners and developers, fuelled by huge subsidies for wind power generation has broken up communities and lifelong friendships. Since January 1 there have been planning applications for 43 wind turbines in Fife.”

He continued: “The public need to become aware that wind energy is not free despite what developers may say.

More expensive

“It is at least three times more expensive than conventional sources of energy and we are all paying for it through significant increases in our electricity bills as power companies are forced to use and pay for energy generated by renewables.”

He said the turbines will be spaced about 400m apart and at least one will be visible from Auchtertool, Burntisland Links, the golf course as well as local roads and the core path network around the Binn.

He added: “Large wind turbines do lasting damage to the landscape, the environment and people’s lives.

“This proposal will be resisted as robustly as possible.”


URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2012/04/06/we-dont-want-turbines-here/