June 4, 2019
Scotland

Plans for 200m-tall turbines next to Hawick’s Stobs Camp gone with the wind

By Kathryn Wylie | The Southern Reporter | 04 June 2019 | www.thesouthernreporter.co.uk

A would-be wind farm developer has dropped provisional proposals for six turbines almost 200m tall next to Stobs Camp, near Hawick.

ABEI Energy was considering putting forward plans to erect turbines 191m high to the tips of their 63m blades on land alongside the former military camp.

The Spanish company has now abandoned those speculative proposals for a site to be called Dodburn wind farm as it is fearful of opposition from residents.

Philip Kerr, chairman of Southdean Community Council, told its meeting last week: “I don’t think this is going to be very popular in Hawick somehow. Transport would be a nightmare, and it’s a wildly unpopular site.

“I suspect that this one will go away very quickly if it is hit by Hawick’s hostility.

“It’s going to be very lively. and I do believe the development will go away.”

Mr Kerr’s prediction proved accurate as, within 48 hours of it being made, the Madrid-based company backed down and pulled the plug on its prospective plans, still in their early stages.

Talks had been held with landowners concerned and letters sent to community councils, but no scoping report had been prepared ahead of a planning application being put together.

The camp was built on the former Stobs estate in 1902 and used as a military training base.

During the First World War, it served as a prisoner-of-war camp, but it was used as a training camp again during the Second World War.

ABEI has also dropped plans for a six-turbine wind farm east of Lockerbie, but it is still pressing ahead with its proposals for a four-turbine one at Gilston, near Heriot.

URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2019/06/04/plans-for-200m-tall-turbines-next-to-hawicks-stobs-camp-gone-with-the-wind/