The situation regarding Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE) and Scottish Power''s application to the Scottish Executive for permission to upgrade the Beauly to Denny power line has moved on a long way since my report in Newsletter 28. The public were given until 12 December 2005 to write to the Executive, indicating their views on the proposals, and 18,000 wrote in to object. For all of you who did - good for you, for taking the time to stand up for what you care about. And for those who sent us copies of your response - many thanks, and apologies for not contacting you individually - as you may imagine, this has been a rather demanding time for us.
We put an immense amount of effort into trying to get to grips with the 2,600 pages that comprise SSE''s proposals, and we by no means got to the bottom of them. But we found a great deal to object to:
We concluded:
"It is our view that the degree of misrepresentation with respect to the importance of the Ochil hills, and the severity of the impacts on them that would result if the proposals were approved, are so great as to potentially invalidate the whole application.
"We call on the Scottish Executive therefore to reject this application or, if they are convinced that the provision of a new 400kV power line from Beauly to Denny is essential, then they should find a suitable alternative route for it that does not encroach on the Ochil hills. If the solution to the problems we have outlined here, and the wider problems being outlined by Stirling Before Pylons and many others, is to put the power line underground through the Stirling area, then we believe that a route must be found that goes to the west, not the east, of Stirling.
At the very least, we believe that there must be a Public Inquiry, in which every aspect of the proposal to route this power line across the Ochil hills is investigated very thoroughly."
That felt quite a brave stance at the time of writing, but we have been hugely gratified by the degree of support shown since. A number of important public bodies were given two months longer to submit their comments on the proposals, and in February Clackmannanshire Council decided unanimously to object - because of the potential adverse impacts on landscape and visual amenity, on the tourism industry and local recreational interests, and the failure to fully assess an alternative route to the west of Stirling. They called on the Executive to hold a public inquiry, and to make sure that a route to the west of Stirling has been properly considered before the inquiry takes place.
Then Scottish Natural Heritage, the formal advisers to the Executive on all matters relating to the landscape, submitted a very detailed 122pp response. This included a wide range of objections to the details of the proposals as they affect the Ochils area, and concluded that the Ochils are one of just two areas (the other being the Cairngorms National Park) where they see the proposals as fundamentally unacceptable. They too called on the Executive to consider a route to the west of Stirling, and also indicated that they believe that parts of that route would have to be put underground.
In March, Stirling Council decided - again, unanimously - to object formally to the proposals. This means that a public inquiry will definitely have to be held, but we are waiting to see how Stirling Council words its objections, and how substantial its objections are.
Most recently, Perth and Kinross and Highland councils have decided unanimously to object, and the Cairngorms National Park Authority has followed suit. So the situation is starting to look more hopeful for the western end of our dear hills, although there is an enormously long way to go before this power line situation is finally decided.
For us, the prospect is one of mountains of further work, and quite massive pressure, to prepare for the inquiry, whenever that gets called. There will be much more to be done than we can cope with alone, and we will probably need to buy in expert help. The funds required are going to be a lot more than the FotO kitty has in it and, with apologies, we will in due course be appealing to our members for donations to help us continue, in your name, with this really important work.