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For Scottish &
Southern Energy's Proposals see:
Details
of Scottish & Southern Energy's Proposals
also this link to
Stirling Before
Pylons web site.
Beauly - Denny
power line - latest news
a)
The power line proposals
b) Friends of the Ochils’ campaign against the
proposals
c) The Public Inquiry: 2007
d) The alternatives to the proposals
e) What you can do
f) Contact us
(a)
The power line proposals
Scottish Hydro Electric Transmission Ltd (SHETL - allied to Scottish &
Southern Energy Ltd), along with Scottish Power Transmission Ltd (SPT),
have applied to the Scottish Ministers for permission to upgrade
the electricity power line between Beauly, near Inverness, and Denny,
near Falkirk.
The new power line
would be an extra-high voltage line (400kV), strung on new, giant pylons
(between 46 and 50 metres in height). The whole line would stretch for
220 kilometres.
In the Stirling area,
the route would go right across Sheriffmuir, at the western end of the
Ochils. It would impact negatively on:
· the White Stone (a Scheduled Ancient Monument), near the A9,
in the north,
· the site of the Battle of Sheriffmuir (1715),
· the Sheriffmuir Inn,
· the area of the Sheriffmuir road where some 40,000 people per
year set off to walk up Dumyat or round the Cocksburn Reservoir,
· Yellowcraig Wood, the wood (some of it designated Ancient Woodland)
which clothes the very prominent south-facing scarp slope of the Ochils,
and
· Logie Kirk and the two cemeteries, at the foot of the scarp.
This route would be
close to the existing, 50-year old, lower voltage (132kV) power line.
The old line would be demolished.
The new line would
have giant pylons some twice the height, and 7 times the volume, of the
existing pylons. It would be double strung with much thicker and more
visible wires.
A new access track,
some 8km in length, would require to be constructed across Sheriffmuir,
to give access to all the many very heavy vehicles and materials involved
in the construction works.
An 80 metre-wide swathe
would be cut through Yellowcraig Wood, advertising and emphasising the
existence of the new giant pylons, as they come down the scarp slope of
the Ochils at Logie.
Some of the negative
impacts of the SHETL / SPT proposals were set out in Stirling
Before Pylons Briefing Notes.
(b)
Friends of the Ochils’ campaign against the proposals
Friends of the Ochils
have been opposing the proposals to route the high-voltage overhead power
line across Sheriffmuir, since the proposals were first made public, in
2004.
We made detailed
representations against the proposals during the consultation stages,
in 2005.
We went on to participate
very fully in the Strategy session and the Stirling session of the Public
Inquiry in 2007, in partnership with Stirling
Before Pylons.
Our evidence showed
not only that there would be major adverse impacts on the Ochils and on
other parts of Stirling, but also that there are real, viable alternatives
that would avoid all those impacts.
Friends of the Ochils
are now working, with Stirling Before Pylons, to ensure that these alternatives
are given full and proper consideration. We know that there is widespread
concern among the people of Scotland about the proposals, and we are calling
on the Scottish Ministers who will decide the issues to recognise the
depth and breadth of feelings on the issues. If you would like to make
your views known, please write to relevant Ministers - we offer an appropriate
letter you can send.
(c
) The Public Inquiry: 2007
SHETL’s proposals
for the Beauly-Denny upgrade were subjected to the largest Public Inquiry
held in Scotland since devolution, from early February to Christmas, 2007.
The proposals were strongly opposed by all the local authorities along
the line, the Cairngorms National Park Authority, Scottish Natural Heritage
(who were particularly forceful and persuasive in their evidence against
the proposals for the Ochils), and a host of third-party objectors.
Friends of the Ochils
joined forces with Stirling Before Pylons, and participated fully in the
Strategy session held in Perth between February and May, and in the Stirling
session, between November and Christmas.
The Reporters to the
Inquiry took over a year to finalise their reports (6 volumes) on the
evidence given by nearly 200 witnesses, along with their recommendations.
These were formally presented, in confidence, to Scottish Ministers on
17th February 2009. Scottish Ministers and their civil servants are now
actively considering what to do, and Ministers are expected to reach a
final decision on the proposals some time in 2009. Only then will the
results of the Public Inquiry be made public.
Friends of the Ochils’
members gave Ochils-related evidence to the Public Inquiry on the following
topics:
Nicki Baker: Ochil
Hills: landscape, amenity, recreation etc.
Virginia Wills:
The Battlefield of Sheriffmuir
Peter Pearson: Approach
to route selection in the Stirling area
Stuart
Dean:
Robin Kelsall: Landscape,
visual impact et al
Further Ochils-related
evidence included:
Carol Anderson (SNH): Landscape
and visual issues
Mike Thomas: Stirling’s
landscape and geomorphology
Geoff Sinclair:
Landscape and visual impact assessment
Nick Hanley:
Willingness to Pay to avoid non-market impacts
Fiona Watson:
A historic landscape at the heart of the nation
Elspeth King: Stirling’s
artistic and literary landscape
Peter Pearson:
Historic
buildings
James Fraser: Tourism
and economic impact
John Logan: Blairmains
Farm Shop and Coffee Bothy
Stuart Fulton: Logie
Kirk
Nicki Baker:
Context and process
Keith
Brown MSP:
Simon Allan: Undergrounding
Evidence on the Stirling
Eastern Villages was given by member Peter
Pearson, Tommy Brookes and the late Archie Bone.
Evidence on the damaging
effects on health resulting from living near power lines was given by
Stirling Before Pylons
members Caroline Paterson and Ian Paterson, as well as a number of others,
including Dr Richard Simpson MSP.
Web links for Public
Inquiry evidence:
Web link A: http://www.beaulydenny.co.uk/DocumentLibrary/LocalSessions/Stirling/FullPrecognitions/ObjectionGroups.aspx
Web link B: http://www.beaulydenny.co.uk/DocumentLibrary/LocalSessions/Stirling/FullPrecognitions/IndividualObjectors.aspx
Web link C: http://www.beaulydenny.co.uk/DocumentLibrary/LocalSessions/Stirling/FullPrecognitions/NationalBodies.aspx
(d)
The alternatives to the proposals
There are real, viable,
economically justifiable alternatives to SHETL’s and SPT’s
proposals for an overland, all-overhead power line, using giant pylons.
The evidence for this built up inexorably during the course of the Public
Inquiry in 2007; crucial parts of it came from SHETL’s own expert
technical witnesses. Further evidence has been building up over the months
since the end of the Inquiry.
SHETL’s evidence
made clear that the main reason they were proposing an all-overhead line
was on grounds of cost - but their witnesses also made very clear that
they consistently ignored or underestimated the large number of negative
human and environmental impacts of their proposals.
The principal alternatives
- acknowledged as viable by SHETL’s expert witnesses - would be
to use subsea cables linking Scotland to England, or to use underground
cables in the worst-affected areas, including Stirling. If all the human
and environmental costs of the all-overhead option had been put into the
equation, the additional money costs of other alternatives would have
been seen to be justifiable.
In relation to subsea
cables, the Scottish Government is actively pursuing the possibility of
constructing a subsea electricity grid around Scotland, including the
outer isles, and linking Scotland to England and international markets.
If this comes to fruition, it would appear to take away the need for the
Beauly-Denny and a number of other subsequent major inland power line
upgrades and new lines.
In relation to undergrounding,
in the Stirling area, Scottish
Natural Heritage proposed to the Public Inquiry that the line should
be put underground to avoid the unacceptable visual impacts on the Ochils
scarp (most of all). They outlined a potential route for underground cables,
to the west of Stirling, where terrain is much more suitable for this
than across the Ochils.
SHETL’s expert
witnesses worked up SNH’s proposals in more detail, and offered
a route that they considered viable. Stirling Council backed SNH’s
position.
Putting the line
underground through the Stirling area would cost considerably more - but
SHETL’s estimates of the additional costs were challenged strongly,
as being far higher than is the norm in Europe and north America.
Stirling University’s
Professor
Nick Hanley showed that the extra costs would be economically justifiable
in the Stirling area.
Whatever the solution,
all the costs would be borne, over many years, by all electricity consumers
in the UK. Since the only reason an overland upgrade may be needed (and
this need was strongly disputed at the Inquiry by the Beauly-Denny Landscape
Group) is to accommodate the wildly fluctuating amounts of electricity
generated by large numbers of wind farms in the north of Scotland, hence
meeting UK government targets for renewable energy generation, this is
entirely right and proper.
Stirling Before Pylons’
expert witness Simon Allan estimates that putting the route underground
would add only around £1 per year to the average household electricity
bill.
Web Link A
http://www.beaulydenny.co.uk/DocumentLibrary/LocalSessions/Stirling/FullPrecognitions/ObjectionGroups.aspx
Web Link C
http://www.beaulydenny.co.uk/DocumentLibrary/LocalSessions/Stirling/FullPrecognitions/NationalBodies.aspx
(e)
What you can do
The Scottish Ministers
(in effect, the SNP members of the Scottish Government) will make a decision,
some time in 2009, about whether or not to allow the Beauly-Denny proposals
to go ahead. We believe it is crucial that, in doing so, they take account
of the very considerable strength of public opinion, against the giant
pylons as proposed.
Friends of the Ochils
have worked with Stirling Before Pylons to design a special post card.
Our aim is to get as many of these as possible signed and sent to relevant
politicians. You may come across these post cards in local shops or offered
at street stalls.
The post card has
also been adapted to a letter
which you can print off from this website. Please put your address and
name to the letter, sign it, and add any additional comments. Then send
it to one or more of the following:
Keith Brown MSP (Ochil
constituency)
Bruce Crawford MSP (Stirling constituency)
Jim Mather MSP (Minister for Enterprise, Energy & Tourism)
John Swinney MSP (Cabernet Secretary for Finance & Sustainable Growth)
- all of whom represent
the SNP;
Dr Richard Simpson
MSP (list member; Labour)
Murdo Fraser MSP (list member; Conservative)
Liz Smith MSP (list member, Conservative).
The address for all
of the above MSPs is:
The Scottish
Parliament
Edinburgh
EH99 1SP
And if you care about
these issues, why not join the Friends of the
Ochils?
Link to the letter
Link to the Join Us page
(f) Contact
us
For more information
on the Friends of the Ochils or our campaign against the Beauly-Denny
power line proposals, contact: Nicki Baker at nicki@baker-pearson.net
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