Save Straiton for Scotland invite you to their Annual General Meeting on Sunday 24th September at 2.30pm in the McCandlish Hall, Straiton, when there will be notice of the recently announced Back Fell Wind farm, just 900m from Straiton, and updates on the proposed schemes of Knockcronal, Carrick, Craiginmoddie and Sclenteuch. These would total 67 x 200m turbines as shown on the map below.

For those that attended the last AGM you will recall that Susan and Melvin gave a presentation on noise and particularly low frequency noise. Susan will be able to bring you up to date with the adverse impact of noise from any of these proposals and how the conjoined inquiry dealt with the noise issue. Christopher will give an update on legal and policy and how this was dealt with by the inquiry.

There will be an afternoon tea and the usual Straiton raffle so please bring along a raffle prize.

A scoping stage report has recently been submitted to the Scottish Government’s Energy Consents Unit by E Power Ltd for the Back Fell Wind Farm. This would be on the Glenalla and Dalmorton forests and would provide 14 x 200m turbines. The applicant states that the village of Straiton will be approximately 900m from the site which is much nearer than any other current scheme proposals. The nearest turbines would be approximately 1km from Knockskae, Little Garroch, Balbeg, Dyke, and Knockgardner, and the application area bounds with the Straiton, Dyke and Knockgarder road.

The three schemes that are currently the subject of a public inquiry are; Knockcronal by Statkraft for 9 x 200m turbines, Carrick by Scottish Power Renewables for 17 x 200m turbines and Craiginmoddie by Energiekontor for 18 x 200m turbines. In addition, the Sclenteuch wind farm proposal is also currently being considered which will be in the forests to the west of the Dersalloch wind farm and will consist of 9 x 200m turbines.

All of these schemes will have significant impacts on the Girvan Valley, Straiton, surrounding communities and the wider landscape of South West Scotland which is already dominated by wind farms both operational and in the planning process.

The main issues of concern are:

200m turbines on high ground will have a significant impact on the landscape. The South Ayrshire Wind Capacity Study in 2018 recommended that turbines over 130m could not be accommodated in this landscape.

Schemes are very close to Wild Land areas and will impact significantly on the setting of the wild land designation by introducing man made and moving features in the landscape.

Residences in the local villages will have dominating views of turbines from multiple schemes.

All wind farms are close to residences and the potential for noise and shadow flicker leading to a deterioration of the enjoyment of properties and potential health impacts.

These wind farms cannot be considered in isolation as there are others in the application stage which will contribute to the adverse impacts on communities.