Just in case you have not seen the posters, or received the email, there are a couple of dates coming up to remind you about.

Sunday 27th October – 2:30 pm; Afternoon Tea in the McCandlish Hall, Straiton.

Put down your reading glasses, and pens and come along for a cup of tea and a bite to eat.  Find out how the Linfairn campaign is progressing and what needs to be done for the remaining 2 weeks. Raise any questions, concerns, and maybe even have a bit of a chuckle at some of the ‘howlers’ that have cropped up in the Planning Documents so far!

Tuesday 29th October – 7:30 pm; Crosshill Information Evening, Crosshill Community Centre.

A number of concerns have been raised from our neighbours in Crosshill, particularly with regard to access routes and traffic.  This session is an opportunity to bring people in Crosshill (and anyone else who would like to come) up to date with the proposal and the objection process so they too can make their feelings known.

SSfS look forward to seeing you there!

©Robert Thompson
Click to object to Linfairn Windfarm

Well folks, you may well now have digested some of the hair-raising Linfairn Windfarm planning documentation,  seen the recent articles in the local papers, posed for the obligatory ‘horrified residents’ photo call, and received the SSfS newsletter.  It’s been a busy week!

Despite developers having years to prepare their documents, the good old public only have a 28 day window to respond.  In our case, we have until the 11th November 2013.  To make it as easy as possible for people to make their feelings known on this proposal we have prepared a How To Object page for you.

The good news, is that Investment Bank led, Willowind (who perhaps opted for the ‘budget’ package from their energy consultants SgurrEnergy..?), have made the initial stages of the objection process very easy for us!  As well as being  littered with errors, omissions, contradiction, and arrogant assumption, they have admitted time and again how many  guidelines and planning policies they contravene, and how ‘significantly adverse‘ this proposal is particularly within 10 km of the site (of course, it’s all for the greater good so they also admit they don’t really care).  Here is a tiny taster of some of the gems in there:

• Within 35km of the windfarm, less than 10% of the ‘receptors’ considered (residents, tourists and passers through)  would experience ‘no impact’ from this proposal, with many of them experiencing ‘significant [adverse] impact’.

• The proposed access route (predicted to carry an additional 40,000 vehicles throughout construction) comes within metres of the conservation village of Straiton, crosses several well used local footpaths, and cycle routes, and ploughs through a field which is also home to one of the local fishing club’s most popular Salmon beats. If anyone is in any doubt as to the size of some of these vehicles you can have a look at this clip of a lorry carrying  one turbine blade being transported in Skye.

• This traffic will also be coming through Maybole, cutting off at Kirkland Street, which houses 2 primary schools and already has recognised traffic issues. The route continues through Crosshill paying no heed to the National Cycle Network (Route 7). Funnily enough, there has been no consultation with the residents of Straiton, Crosshill, or Maybole who are to accommodate the impact created by the additional  40,000 vehicles expected to pass through during construction.

• Of 20 photomontages, only 4 are within 5 km of the site, 3 of which are side-on views and appear to be carefully chosen for their ‘screening’ qualities. There is not one honest photo representation provided for a frontal view of the project from anywhere along the valley and widely used local core paths.

• As a resident within 5km you only considered to be adversely impacted if you have a window facing either of the 2 sites. A full view of some or all turbines from your garden or outside your house does not count.  If you would like to see if you are within the ‘significantly’ impacted category you can check the LVIA (p47). If you think you may have been missed, then let us know!

These are just some general issues, there are in truth many more.  Several people have raised points with us and along with some of our own we have put them together with some information on how to object. We only have one shot at this, so please make sure your voice is heard!