June 13, 2014
Scotland

Eddleston wind farm campaigners join new region-wide protest group

Peeblesshire News | 13 Jun 2014 | www.peeblesshirenews.com

The threat of a further 1,000 wind turbines on Border hills is uniting protest groups across the region.

Eddleston windfarm campaigners against proposals to build turbines at Cloich Forest near Eddleston have joined the newly formed Borders Network of Conservation Groups (BNCG) which aims to unite protest groups and protect the local landscape from construction.

BNCG, is a not-for-profit, non-political umbrella organisation with 15 paid up member groups, including both civic and amenity societies.

Vice Chair Mark Rowley explained: “If the brakes are not applied now, the Borders will very soon become the Land of a 1,000 turbines.”

The group plans to meet with Scottish Borders Council Leader David Parker and the local authority’s Chief Executive Tracey Logan to “suggest constructive ways in which the Council can fulfil its obligations to protect and promote the Borders’ heritage, people, and economy”.

Last week the Peeblesshire News reported that councillors of all party political hues and none have combined to send a clear signal to the Scottish Government that this region is at saturation point when it comes to “inappropriate” wind farms.

BNCG chair, John Williams, said: “We have strengthened our Borders-wide organisation so that we can step up our campaign to safeguard the enormous value that the Borders landscape brings to the economy, culture, recreation and ecology of the area.

“The biggest threat to the Borders is coming from the rush to erect as many wind farms as possible before subsidies are reduced in 2017, and as restrictions due to the MoD’s seismic monitoring at Eskdalemuir are relaxed. “Developers appear to have no concern for the devastating effect that increasing numbers of ever-larger wind turbines have on our landscape and communities”

URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2014/06/13/eddleston-wind-farm-campaigners-join-new-region-wide-protest-group/