January 28, 2013
Scotland

Call for 2km ruling on wind farms

January 28, 2013 | www.rutherglenreformer.co.uk

Wind farms should be at least two kilometres away from residential areas, according to the Scottish Conservatives.

The party is calling on the SNP to ensure legislation is enforced to “better protect” the value of homes.

It said local planning guidelines already suggesting a 2km distance are repeatedly ignored.

The call comes as the Tories launch their energy policy review with a report Power and Responsibility in Falkirk. Leader Ruth Davidson said: “It is not fair that anyone should have to live in the shadow of a turbine.

“The SNP may think it’s acceptable to plaster the countryside with wind farms, spoiling the scenery in the process, but the least it could do is offer some kind of quality control on the policy. Invoking the 2km limit would simply be enforcing the rules that are already there, but in too many cases have been ignored.”

She added: “We cannot let the Scottish Government’s obsession with wind energy spoil landscapes. It is already miles ahead of its own targets, which were already far too ambitious and unnecessary.”

The Scottish Government wants 100% of electricity demand to be met by renewable power by 2020, based on the current level of consumption. But the Tories said ministers could have “well overshot” energy targets years early. In October last year First Minister Alex Salmond announced a new goal to meet half of Scotland’s electricity demand from renewable energy by 2015.

Conservative MSP Murdo Fraser, convener of Holyrood’s energy committee, called the 100% target “fanciful and completely unnecessary”.

“What we know now is the SNP is way ahead of its renewable energy target, without so much as a thought towards Scotland’s landscape,” he said.

A Scottish Government spokesman said the Tory claims were “thoroughly confused”.

URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2013/01/28/call-for-2km-ruling-on-wind-farms/