August 29, 2012
Scotland

Call for tourism to save Scotland from wind farms

by Mick Ryan - UKC and UKH 28/Aug/2012 | www.ukclimbing.com

In any National Park visitor survey when asked why they visit national parks the overwhelming majority agree that it is the chance to enjoy outdoor activities surrounded by beautiful scenery in a peaceful and tranquil setting.

This is the same for any wild place or mountain area, but some think that the beautiful scenery and tranquil settings that people value is under threat from industrialisation in the form of wind turbine farms. As reported at UKH previously, nowhere is this threat more imminent than the wild places of Scotland.

‘RenewableUK figures show that Scotland has 170 onshore wind farms operational or under construction. A massive 295 more are already consented or in planning, and if all are approved, could result in over 5,000 turbines supported with miles of service roads,’ reports the Mountaineering Council of Scotland (MCofS).

As part of their lobbying against wind turbine farms in Scotland’s Munros and Corbetts, MCofS’s Chief Officer, David Gibson is attempting to mobilise travel and tourist businesses to voice their dissent against this ‘industrialisation’.

“We are calling on travel trade businesses to contact MSPs, and the Scottish Government’s tourism agency VisitScotland, to help them understand that damaging our number one unique selling point, Scotland’s highland scenery, to the extent being proposed will undermine our tourism economy”

For more information on how to help, contact the Mountaineering Council of Scotland

URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2012/08/29/call-for-tourism-to-save-scotland-from-wind-farms/