Looking for the quickest and easiest way to object?

Click here to go to our Email Template.

Otherwise, read on …

Knockskae wind farm will be determined by South Ayrshire Council, you can object directly on their website by registering and leaving your comment, click here. Alternatively you can scroll down, select some objection topics and send them, along with any additional comments you may wish to make on our on-line form.

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Objection Methods

These are a couple of ways in which you or family and friends can object to this planning application:

• Submit an objection online using our email template
• By post
• By submitting your objection directly on South Ayrshire website

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Object by Email or in Writing

Objections to this application can be made by email to South Ayrshire Council mailbox at planning.development@south-ayrshire.gov.uk

Or post your letter to the following address:

Notes:

• Knockskae wind farm has been given the Reference No: 15/01216/APPM it is helpful to use this when writing to the Planning Department.
• You must include your name, address, postcode and the date in your emails and letters.
• One email or letter per individual in each household. If one email or letter is sent on behalf of 2 or more people it only counts as one objection.
• If you write, please feel free to use some of the objection topics listed below.
• A draft template for a post cards is available here – you can print it out on thin card and give the other three to friends and family. The address can be printed on the reverse or you can just hand write it on if you are unsure of double-sided printing.

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Objection Topics

The objection topics below are a guide only. You don’t have to use them all, so please feel free to select a couple and try if possible to put them into your own words.

• The proposal will be clearly visible from the Conservation villages of Straiton, Crosshill and Kirkmichael detracting from their unique setting.
• Many homes would be negatively impacted by this proposal resulting in loss of amenity, noise pollution and light flicker.
• Adjoining the site is the Ayrshire Alps Road Cycling Park with some routes experiencing dominant views of turbines including National Cycle Route 7. Core paths in the area are also negatively affected as are Scotways routes.
• The Merrick Area of Wild Land is the only one in south west Scotland and as such is a scarce resource and requires protection. This proposal would have a profoundly negative impact on this important landscape.
• The proposed traffic route passes along Kirkland Street in Maybole with two primary schools and known traffic issues. It continues through Crosshill, crosses over the B741 and along a single track road which is also National Cycle Route 7. Thousands of vehicle journeys are predicted along this single track road which runs alongside Auchalton SSSI and several houses.
• It is contrary to several aims of the Local Development Plan which seeks development that “respects the character of the landscape”, “respects, protects, and where possible, enhances natural, built and cultural heritage resources”, “protects peat resources’ and “is appropriate in terms of its amenity impact, layout, scale, massing, design and materials in relation to its surroundings”. The proposal is not in keeping with its surroundings and is a large industrial development in a rural setting made with non-sustainable materials (The nacelle encloses a magnet containing about 1/3rd of a tonne of the rare earth metals, neodymium and dysprosium, proven reserves of dysprosium will likely run out in 2020).
• This proposal is not in keeping with the South Ayrshire Wind Capacity Study which states “the narrowness of parts of this landscape (17c) and its proximity to the well settled Stinchar and Girvan valleys and the sensitive Rugged Hills, Lochs and Forest (21) are key constraints.” The development is sited on high ground right at the very edge of this Landscape Character Type (LCT), indeed the application boundary actually overlaps LCT 13 Intimate Pastoral Valley.
• Turbines at Knocksake would be fully visible from many parts of the Dark Sky Park. They would:
  ·   destroy the wilderness experience and the currently pristine natural horizon
  ·   create air turbulence and possibly cloud formation, reducing night visibility
• The Galloway Forest, Dark Sky Park and Galloway and South Ayrshire Biosphere offer a unique experience, dependent not just upon dark skies but also on a sense of remoteness, wilderness and closeness to nature.
• It was “due to its remoteness” that the Dark Sky Park became one of only five “Gold Tier” Dark Sky Parks in the western world.
• This remoteness and wildness is sought by the many visitors who now come to enjoy the Dark Sky Park experience and would be severely compromised by development which the Moffat report on Wind farms and Tourism says would “in effect …  industrialise large areas of wilderness or semi-wilderness” on its borders.
• We note the conclusion in the Moffat report that “The evidence is overwhelming that wind farms reduce the value of the scenery” and believe that this reduction in scenic value is inappropriate for an area so close to the Galloway Forest, adjacent to National Cycle Route 7 and visible from roads used to access the Galloway Forest, and the A713 Tourist Route into Ayrshire from the south and will result in a significant drop in tourism.
• We respectfully request that the Scottish Government respect the view of its own Moffat Report on Wind farms and Tourism that local planning policies should act to prevent the construction of wind farms in scenic and tourism-sensitive areas.
• We believe that Knockskae Wind Farm is the wrong solution for a scenic landscape which is of great importance to Southern Scotland.
• It would be conspicuous from as far away as Troon and Ayr to the north, the Carrick Hills, the summits of Cornish Hill and Cairnsmore of Carsphairn in the south, ruining the perception of the Galloway hills as Southern Scotland’s last wild enclave.
• It would be visible from three nationally important Designed Landscapes: Blairquhan, Craigengillan and Bargany.
• We note that in a June 2013 opinion poll of all residents of Straiton, 92% opposed the Knockskae wind farm proposals, and we ask that the Scottish Government pay due heed to local opinion.
• We respectfully urge South Ayrshire Planning Department to refuse permission for this development and to keep the scenic integrity of the Straiton Hills, Galloway Forest Park and Galloway Forest Dark Sky Park intact.