South Ayrshire Council are in the process of producing guidance for wind farm development. Earlier they invited comments on a range of wind farm issues to shape this guidance. We’ve looked at some of the comments and note that quite a number of developers took part to get their point of view across. Some of those views include “an arbitrary 2km should not be drawn round each settlement”, “Landscape Character 17b is only appropriate for turbines 50-70m in height however this has been shown to be too conservative” It’s hardly surpsrising that these were made by RES who want to erect 149m turbines less than 2km from Waterside and Patna!
There are many other examples where developers appear to have a blatant disregard for communities, our precious landscape, planning guidance and the landscape study by SNH.
Please follow the link here to view the draft guidance. The team at Save Straiton are producing a comprehensive response to this draft and we would appreciate your views as well. Even if you only want to comment on one aspect of the draft guidance which you feel strongly about please let us know – and leave your own comment too of course!
Developers are using this opportunity to get their views across and have guidance written in their favour We must get our message to the Council: 2km is the very minimum distance from homes (turbines are very much larger than a few years ago), light flicker and noise must be assessed properly, river valleys should be protected, the Landscape Capacity Study should be strictly adhered to and most importantly individual homes should be given the same status as villages. There are many other issues of course but we feel these are some of the most critical.
We’re looking forward to receiving your comments.
Save Straiton for Scotland 
A minimum set off distance for a wind turbine and neighbours should be 2 km MINIMUM!
A 2 km separation between a wind turbine is the minimum necessary – preferably a 100km should be applied
Turbine heights should be measured from the valley floor not from the top of the hill where it is sited as a 100m turbine on a 300m hill towers over everything in the valley below despite probably being within the “approved” height.
Light flicker needs to be re-assessed as even at a great distance a moving object in front of the sun will cast a flicker on the ground, this nonsense of a limit to the nuisance being 10x rotor blade has to change.
Individual properties in range of any wind farm must be consulted properly, at present these are ignored completely despite being in direct sight of almost every turbine planned so far.
1 Local Council Planning Departments do not monitor wind farm performance and it follows that Councillors who approve them have no idea if they truly are the right wind farm in the right place.
2 The claim that the planning process is open, fair and community based when Developers can legally spread largesse in the form of monetary grants and offers of discounts, during an ongoing Planning Application should be ILLEGAL. It is a mockery of Councils to claim that it is not relevant to the Planning Application.
3 The reliance of the Scottish Government on Scottish Renewables and ‘Industry Sources’ for job figures and the vast sums claimed in investment are open to serious question. Where are the independent audits of these figures? Without them it is only a fool who accepts them. Nothing has been learned from the conduct of the Banking Industry so why anyone accepts as the gospel truth figures from an Industry that is receiving Billions in public money is beyond me.
4 What Council has enquired how many time turbines have failed, been repaired or asked how many blades have had to be replaced in any wind farm in their area. The Scottish Government response is these costs will be met by the Operator. Not that they have considered that ultimately the costs fall on the consumer/voter through electricity bills.
5 It will undoubtedly mean Court Actions but there is an inevitability that noise impacts on health and affects on property values are future issues.
Any Council that ignores these issues is in line to be a future Litigant. Lawyers do not care who pays and with documents such as the final report of the Senate Committee on wind farms reporting to the Australian Parliament in existence, future legal actions are coming ever closer.
1 Council Planning Departments do not monitor wind farm performance and therefore there is no briefing of Councillors on the Planning Committee that they have approved ‘a wind farm in the right place’.
2 Two massive issues have potential to impact on Councils in the future. Approving wind farms in close proximity to human abodes and the impact on human health and house values resulting. Councils are just one one of a long line of potential legal litigants who should be considering very carefully the Final Senate Committee Report to the Australian Government that will eventually have far reaching effects.
3 Highland Council are to remove turbines in close proximity to schools. All Scottish Councils should heed the warning signal this sends out.
4 The planning process is open, fair and community based. Councils maintain that Developers spreading largesse, grants and discounts during the planning process is not relevant to a Planning Application is farcical. Not only should it not be allowed it should be illegal.
5 Councils should be asking where are the independent audits of the claimed job figures and investment sourced by the Scottish Government from Scottish Renewables and the
‘renewables industry’. Nothing has been learned from the conduct of the Banking Industry. Only a fool would accept these figures at face value yet they are announced in the Scottish Parliament and to the Media as the Gospel truth. The renewable industry has a massive commercial interest in the billions of pounds plundered from UK tax payers and stands to gain billions of consumers money for Decades. If that is not reason enough to ask questions what is.
Something I overlooked in the previous entry. I wonder how many Councillors are aware of the massive lobbying capacity of Scottish Renewables. Very few Objectors have vast financial resources to fight with. Against that you have Scottish Renewables whose ANNUAL membership fees run from just over £6,400 for a large company down on a sliding scale to nearly £250 for Associate Membership. A quick check of the membership list on their website will confirm that Membership Fees alone provides considerable funds to successfully lobby the Scottish Government. Another point to bear in mind is that they do not exclusively represent Scottish interests, with a membership from all over the world, many looking very successfully to maximise profit for their foreign owners and shareholders at our expense.
Former First Minister Alec Salmond and Fergus Ewing have repeatedly used their figures and will claim that it is normal practice to use industry sources for job figures and so called inward investment.
Equally performance figures are never challenged in the Scottish Parliament or Media who are spoon fed how many millions of homes will be lit. No one in the Scottish Parliament asks ‘for how many hours during peak demand in the day does this cover?’ The answer is of course totally, irrevocably dependent on the wind blowing during peak demand times that it is not guaranteed to do hour by never mind day on day.
It is a simple concept to an engineer that the wind is a switch. When the wind bows it is ON when It doesen’t blow it is OFF. Try telling that to a politician or councillor and ask yourself why Scotland is littered with Turbines and you will reach the inevitable conclusion that the vast majority of Politicians and Councillors haven’t a clue. Those that do have been ignored until the present time when the economic reality and implications of what is in place has been realised everywhere but in Scotland. At the coo’s tail in every regard to onshore wind thanks to stupid politicians.