Straiton residents (or ‘receptors’ as we are known, now we are in the planning system) should have received their leaflet yesterday from Willowind – telling us everything that we expected them to. That they were submitting their vastly scaled back plans to the Scottish Government on Friday (27th September), and of course how busy they have been working so so closely with the community over the last 8 months…
So what’s new?
An initial glance at the planning submission does not show any major changes to the 25 turbines that were in the initial scoping report. There is a new mist free version of the below photomontage taken from the Craigengower Monument, with no trees or hills in the way to detract from the true impact of both of the Linfairn sites. Thousands of tourists a year driving through the upper Girvan Valley into the Galloway Forest Park and beyond will now surely be pleasantly distracted from that long boring journey as they gaze at the 126.5m structures almost toppling over the Inner Genoch Hill…
The Westerly Linfairn site (on the Dyke / Knockgardner side of the hill) looks equally tragic. If you happen to be standing on top of the Craigengower Hill looking West, you may soon be able to marvel at how the giant metal structures in the foreground draw your eye away from that ugly rock on the horizon that we have come to know as Ailsa Craig..
What’s next
To allow our supporters to make an informed decision about the Linfairn Windfarm, we have uploaded all the documentation to the SSfS website for you. you can find this here.
We are also preparing a ‘how to object’ page with some key topics and templates which you should get details of later this week. There will also be a leaflet delivered locally, explaining the process, key dates and next steps. There is no need to panic – we have until the 8th November, our team of experts already have the documentation, and there are already several pages of objection points written based on the small amount of information we have looked at so far – so don’t worry – there will be plenty to go around!
In all, our applicants have not failed to disappoint in the tone and quality of their submission, and as such we are going to be busy articulating all the issues we have found to date. Please in the meantime be patient, but be ready to act when the time comes! If you are reading through the documents and find any errors or inconsistencies please do let us know and we will add them to the list!
Save Straiton for Scotland 
At the risk of boring repetition, the only acceptable compromise is NO to any windmills. As Boris neatly put it in a recent Telegraph piece on Mr Milliband “whose sole discernible contribution was to continue the pointless desecration of the moors and dales and valleys of this country with wind farms. There they stand – wrecking some of the most gorgeous views in the world and producing derisible quantities of energy. He totally flunked his main task, which was to get on with building the new nuclear reactors that this country needs. Why do the French have lower energy bills than the British? Because 80 per cent of their needs are supplied by nuclear power. They are laughing at us.” I hasten to add that I’m not making a political point, just endorsing Boris’s energy philosophy and his view on windmills.
So Les, if we build more nuclear power stations, would you be happy to have one next to Straiton? Would you be OK if the UK Government revisited its 1978 planning proposals for burying the nuclear waste in the hills around Loch Doon.
“The first planning application was made in January 1978 to Kyle and Carrick District Council (South-west Scotland) by the UKAEA to test drill on Mullwharchar Hill near Loch Doon on the border between Strathclyde and Dumfries and Galloway. On 24th October 1978, the Council rejected the application, so in April 1979, the Authority lodged an appeal with the Secretary of State for Scotland.
On 19th February 1980, a public inquiry began in Ayr Town Hall, finishing on 19th March. Three opposition groups were formed: a branch of the Edinburgh-based group, the Scottish Campaign to Resist the Atomic Menace (SCRAM), opened in Castle Douglas; the Scottish Conservation Society formed in Kirkcudbright and the Campaign Opposing Nuclear Dumping (COND) formed in Ayr. The inquiry fuelled massive public opposition, and other groups formed across Scotland, some near sites which had not even made it to the short list of 8.”
http://www.no2nuclearpower.org.uk/radwaste/history-of-nuclear-waste-disposal-proposals-in-britain/
In truth John, I was conscious of the reference to Nuclear, and really used the quote to make the primary point about wind power and it’s “dirisible” productivity and desecration of the countryside. As to nuclear, as far as I can tell, we have not yet fully harnessed sea power nor have we explored possible cleaner forms of nuclear power. And now that some aspects of climate change are being debunked, I might even favour a return to coal production!! But to stick to our theme, I have no reservations is damning wind-farms as wasteful and near useless – and unsightly. I rest my case:-)
I’ll have to disagree with you on the “unsightly” judgement. I find them soothing to watch in motion and I’ve yet to see any figures that indicate windfarm developments have damaged tourism visitor numbers in any of the locations where they’ve been built.