May 14, 2015
Scotland

Planners deliver major blow to windfarm project

By Graeme Strachan | The Courier | 13 May 2015 | www.thecourier.co.uk

Angus Council’s planning department has delivered what might be the fatal blow to a major windfarm project.

Head of planning Vivien Smith’s report recommends the council objects to the proposed Macritch Hill windfarm on the Angus/Perthshire border.

The report states: “It is considered that the proposal would give rise to significant and adverse landscape and visual impacts and also to significant and adverse cumulative landscape and visual impacts.

“The potential benefits of the proposal…are acknowledged but the adverse landscape and visual impacts are considered to be unacceptable.”

The report will go before a full meeting of Angus Council on Thursday and any objection made would require Scottish Ministers to hold a public local inquiry before the application is determined.

Developer Eneco UK submitted an application for 18 turbines between Glen Prosen and Glen Isla, each 125 metres, to the Scottish Government in January.

Eneco say the energy produced could supply Scottish Water with up to a third of their annual energy consumption.

The site is approximately six miles north west of Kirriemuir and has been named Macritch Hill after the hill just east of the Scottish Water reservoir.

The Scottish Government has received 131 individual representations from third parties as well as a petition with 684 signatories.

Cairngorms National Park Authority, Scottish Natural Heritage, the John Muir Trust and Kirriemuir, Inveresk and Stanley community councils have also objected to the proposal.

Malcolm Connor, of Friends of Backwater and Glens Against Turbines, said: “It is notable that not one single letter of support has been lodged for this application.”

An Eneco spokesperson said: “These concerns have been raised and addressed previously…with Eneco reducing the number and elevation of turbines and designing in a suitable location, water; independent research has taken place and a pollution prevention plan with Scottish water has been put into place.

URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2015/05/14/planners-deliver-major-blow-to-windfarm-project/