Brian Heaton
There are no new wind farm development applications to report that the NEMT has felt it should object to. There has, however, been two significant developments in applications that we have objected to previously.
The first concerns the Glendye wind farm application. The NEMT was informed at the beginning of February that this application had now been transferred to the Scottish Government’s Planning and Environmental Appeals Division (DPEA). Two reporters have been appointed who will hold a public enquiry into it. As the NEMT had submitted a letter of objection (in 2020) to the wind farm we were offered the opportunity to make a verbal presentation at the hearing and enquiry sessions. It was felt however that as we could not significantly add to the content of our written submission (which will be reviewed by the reporters), the offer should be declined. These sessions are open to members of the public to sit and listen to and are provisionally expected to take place in August. Details of the sessions will become available on the DPEA web site if anyone is interested. The detail of our objection in the letter is given below:
The location of this proposed development is in a designated Local Landscape Area (previously termed a Special Landscape Area). The purpose of these areas was outlined in the summary of the document published by the Scottish Government Spatial Data Infrastructure as recently as August 2018 where it says that the purpose of the designation “is to ensure that the landscape is not damaged by inappropriate development” and “These designations play an important role in developing an awareness of the landscape qualities that make particular areas distinctive and promote a community’s sense of pride in their surroundings.
We write regarding our particular concern regarding the detrimental effect that this wind farm will have on this Area, in stark contradiction to the purpose of such an Area as defined above by the Scottish Government. The quality of views from the surrounding hills and glens, not just from the higher ones surrounding the upper Glen Esk, which are in the Cairngorm National Park and Mount Keen Wild Land Area, but also the closer, very popular, lower ones, will be severely affected. These lower ones are used extensively by families, school parties and members of the general public from Aberdeen, Dundee and the areas in between because of their accessibility and more gentle terrain. The windmills would be constantly in view from the walks up, and ridges from, Clachnaben, Mount Battock, Sturdy Hill and Glen Dye. This could so reduce the quality of the experience that future walks are not undertaken by people, potentially to the detriment of their wellbeing.
Associated with this must be the potential impact on tourism with people no longer wanting to stay in the area where the currently easily accessible experience of seeing a natural wild Scottish landscape is a major attraction is no longer the case.
As illustrated below in the second development reported, the time scale of the report being written, submitted and the Ministers’ decision being made and issued following such an enquiry can be long.
The second significant development is the refusal by the Ministers of the Glenshero Wind Farm application. This was subjected to a public enquiry in 2020 with the Reporters’ substantial report and recommendation being submitted to the Ministers in June 2021. The Ministers’ final decision was communicated to the applicant at the beginning of March 2022. This decision could be subject to a judicial review following an application to the Court of Session by the developer, should one be made. The report and the refusal letter to the applicant can be downloaded from the Energy Consents Scotland web site for the period including March 4th 2022.
The letter from the Ministers acknowledged that there were economic and renewable energy benefits from the development. However, it was considered that the visual detrimental impacts of it meant it could not be considered to be a sustainable development and would not represent “the right development in the right place” as expected by paragraph 28 of Scottish Planning Policy 2014. Highlighted in the letter were the detrimental impacts on the integrity of the Cairngorms National Park, the transitional nature of the landscape when viewed from the south and the significant visual impacts experienced from the majority of the 22 view points from distances up to 23 kilometres away that were considered by the Reporter and, although the development did not enter into Wild Land Area 19 , there would be significant impacts on its wild land qualities when viewed from an extensive portion of it.
This decision is welcomed by the NEMT and will be supported, if necessary, in the future.
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