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Scots draw battle lines over plans for wind farm

Paul Kelbie,Scotland Correspondent
Saturday 01 September 2001 00:00 BST
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In the shadow of what is believed to be Mons Graupius, where 10,000 Roman legionaries defeated 30,000 Picts and altered the map of Scotland for 2,000 years, another skirmish is under way that could change the landscape for generations to come.

Controversial plans to build a wind farm on a remote hillside in north-east Scotland has provided a classic example of the difficulties surrounding the Government's plans to increase Britain's renewable energy sources. Accusations of foul play, misinformation, environmental destruction and dirty tricks have abounded in a fight over the siting of 21 turbines, each as large as a 30-storey block of flats, close to the A96 Aberdeen-Inverness road.

Renewable Energy Services (RES) plan to invest £15m in the construction of the turbines, each 78 metres high, on the Hill of Bainshole and nearby Play Hill, in the Glens of Foudland, near Huntly in Aberdeenshire. When fully operational RES claims it will produce enough power to supply more than 11,350 homes in the towns of Huntly, Inverurie and Turriff.

Although the council has received more than 40 letters objecting to the scheme and only three in favour, it is expected to be recommended for approval by Aberdeenshire councillors by the end of this month. A protest group formed to oppose the development, Friends of Glens of Foudland (Fogof), claim that the development of the site will disfigure the landscape.

Last month the Advertising Standards Authority had to intervene in the dispute after Fogof placed a local newspaper advertisement claiming the development would cause traffic chaos, bring down house prices and endanger wildlife, among other things. RES challenged the group over the claims and the ASA ruled that five out of 10 points made in the advert were untrue or misleading.

Malcolm Hodgson, a graduate zoologist from Ythanwells and a member of Fogof, said: "Our objection is not to wind farms on principle but the selection of sites for solely economic reasons. In the case of the Glens of Foudland it has been chosen because it has a single landowner and it is close to the main road and national grid, so the development costs are very low. The site is very open country with some coniferous forest around and a huge amount of wildlife. When we placed the advertisement, the ASA asked for explanations on all the points RES queried.

"We complained about house prices and they wanted us to prove house prices had fallen in Huntly, but how can we prove that until it happens?"

However, Ray Hunter, the project manager for RES, said the campaign waged by Fogof was typical of the misinformation generated by opposition groups. "The perception created is that there is strong local opposition to every single wind farm that is proposed. In practice we know that is not the case," he said.

"Generally a local farming community will welcome a wind farm. They regard it as an agricultural diversification. The problem is with people who have made a lifestyle decision to live in the countryside. They buy nice properties but forget they don't own the countryside and the views around it. Opposition groups claim wind farms have no benefit, only exist to create money for the developers, and cause environmental chaos. They try to spread fear and alarm by misrepresenting the facts, using information out of context, by telling lies."

Earlier this week the Government launched an initiative to encourage farmers and landowners to allow small wind farms to be developed on their property so that Britain can meet its target of producing 10 per cent of its energy from renewable sources by 2010.

The UK is Europe's windiest region and already has 61 wind farms operating about 880 turbines, which generate enough electricity for 260,000 homes. But that is still less than 1 per cent of the national needs.

Although many more wind farms are planned across the country, the authorities realise there is a an element of "nimbyism" to overcome. There are local battles being fought by pressure groups trying to keep the proliferation of wind farms at bay from the islands of Scotland to Cornwall.

Many of them rely on help from an organisation called Country Guardian, which was established 10 years ago "to oppose the inappropriate development of commercial wind farms on our finest coasts and hills and to promote conservation of energy".

Angela Kelly, the chairwoman of the organisation, said: "Wind farms do far more harm to the environment and communities than good. They exist on hill-tops as symbols so local politicians can be seen to be 'green' and doing something to combat global warming.

"These people are not environmentalists, they are not green, they are the least green people you can imagine. They are businessmen with only one aim in life and that's to make as much money as quickly as possible. These turbines divide communities wherever they go," she said.

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