APPROVALS for windfarms in the Ochils continue to be granted, but it will be
many more months before we start to get a clear picture as to what is happening
with the long-running attempt by developers to turn the Ochils into a windfarm
landscape. Planning and public inquiry (PI) wheels turn slowly, making it difficult
to ascertain just how many windfarms might ultimately be approved and built.
However, with the recent approval by Clackmannanshire Council of a windfarm
application at Burnfoot Hill, the future looks bleak.
Let me quickly recap on what has happened so far. The first planning application
to receive approval, following a PI, was for a windfarm of 18 turbines at Green
Knowes above Glen Devon. This was followed by four more PIs into windfarm applications
at Littlelaw and Snowgoat Glen, both in the hills above Dunning and Auchterarder,
Mellock Hill above Carnbo, and Lochelbank near Glen Farg. The PIs commenced
on 27 November 2006 and were completed on 4 April 2007. It will take until the
summer (the Reporter could be no more precise than that) before a decision is
made as to which, if any, of these four appeals will be upheld.
Clackmannanshire Council then decided to approve the planning application for
a windfarm at Burnfoot Hill, a mile or so to the north of Ben Cleuch, on 28
March, just as the four public inquiries were coming to an end. Their approval
was in spite of a very strong objection from Scottish Natural Heritage and was
contrary to the advice of the council’s own landscape consultant. The
planning committee was evenly split, with five Labour members voting in favour
and four SNP and one Conservative voting against. The convenor then had a second
and casting vote and the application was approved. This is a bitter blow that
confirms just how unimportant the landscape and recreational amenity of the
Ochils would seem to be for many of our decision-makers.
Furthermore, the timing of the council’s decision has caused significant
problems for those involved with the four PIs. FotO, along with other parties,
had just spent the previous four weeks at the conjoined session of the PIs,
dealing with evidence from all parties on the cumulative impact of windfarms
in the Ochils. Basically, this involved analysing the landscape and visual impact
of one or more of the four applications against the known baseline of the windfarms
at Braes of Doune and Green Knowes. It then became apparent, just as the PIs
were coming to an end, that Clackmannanshire Council was arranging to hear the
Burnfoot Hill application on 28 March and that it was quite possible that a
third windfarm might be added to the baseline.
With a view to avoiding this complication, Perth and Kinross Council, SNH and
FotO/Ramblers Association all wrote to the Scottish Executive asking that the
minister direct the council to delay hearing the Burnfoot Hill application until
the results of the four PIs were known - a power that the minister has under
the 1992 Town and Country Planning Act. For reasons best known to the Executive,
the minister refused to intervene, the Burnfoot Hill hearing went ahead, and
the council approved the application.
All parties to the PIs must now provide comments to the Reporter on the decision
by the council to grant planning permission for the Burnfoot Hill windfarm,
but what happens as a result of these comments is unknown at the time of writing
this piece. Some indication as to the complications caused by the Burnfoot Hill
decision can however be gauged by the fact that SNH, which originally did not
object to the Lochelbank decision, will now do so in the light of the Burnfoot
Hill decision.
I could go on, but one thing is clear to me. The whole issue of windfarms in
the Ochils is in a mess and it is difficult to know where it will end. What’s
more, as we said in our letter to the Executive requesting that the Burnfoot
Hill decision be delayed: “We are concerned that as a result of the timing
of the various appeals, council hearings etc, we might well finish up with far
more windfarms in the Ochils than even the most vigorous supporter of onshore
windfarms would approve. The Ochils could, in the jargon of landscape experts,
turn from a landscape with windfarms into a windfarm landscape. We could be
sleepwalking to a disaster for one of the most significant ranges of hills in
central Scotland.”
Meanwhile, yet another windfarm application has been made to Perth and Kinross
Council, for a cluster of five turbines in the eastern Ochils at Tillyrie near
Milnathort. The developer has submitted a revised application (ref 06/02472/FUL)
following the refusal, by Perth and Kinross Council, of the original application
in November 2005. If you have not already done so, you may wish to object to
this application. And no doubt once the dust has settled on the present round
of applications there will be further applications for extensions to those windfarms
already approved.
To my mind, solutions now lie not so much with fighting individual applications
etc, but in securing a change at government level that puts a cap on the number
of onshore windfarms. Otherwise, I can see no end to the onslaught on the Ochils.
Once a number of windfarms have been approved and built, the ability of groups
such as ours to stop further developments diminishes significantly. How can
we continue to argue that the Ochils landscape is worth protecting when it has
already been turned into an industrialised windfarm landscape?
For further information, contact Stuart on 01259 781551 or email spdean@lineone.net
“I have been kept awake for the last few nights by thoughts of this development.
This is a huge step for Clackmannanshire and ultimately I feel we have made
the correct decision today in approving the application. This type of investment
in sustainable energy is perhaps the greatest gift we can leave the children
of Clackmannanshire.”
- Councillor Eddie Carrick,
convenor of the regulatory committee for Clackmannanshire Council, after the
Burnfoot application was approved.