18 turbines at 200m high in the Galloway Forest Park is unacceptable

ScottishPower Renewables have submitted an application for the first of their proposed wind farms in the Galloway Forest Park.

Clauchrie is between Barr and Glentrool and consists of 18 turbines at a whopping 200m high. They will be clearly visible from the Straiton walks and have serious negative impacts on the landscape, Wild Land, Biosphere, Dark Sky Park plus other walks and cycle routes. This has implications for residents and visitors to Straiton. We are busy studying the application in detail and will let you know how you can make your representations.

Enough is Enough

Ayrshire hasn’t escaped the realities of climate change this winter, Storm Frank brought devastation to our communities and flooding to homes, farms and fields. We all have to do our bit to save the planet.

But did you know that Ayrshire is already doing ten times more than the rest of the country?

Across the UK as a whole there is one wind turbine for every ten thousand people. Here in Ayrshire it’s more like one per thousand. If Knockskae Wind Farm was allowed to go ahead, together with the four other proposals that threaten our community, the picturesque parish of Straiton could end up with one giant industrial turbine for every three residents.

Ayrshire is already doing more, much more, than it’s ‘fair share’ and the Scottish Government is already over-achieving on its renewables targets.

We say: “enough is enough”.

We need to protect what’s left of the beautiful scenery in our corner of Scotland. We need to protect the Merrick Wild Land Area from being irretrievably undermined, the Unesco Biosphere from being plundered and the Dark Sky Park from any more light pollution

We need to protect the jobs and small businesses that rural tourism supports.

We need to protect our homes – disturbing the peat and deforesting the hillsides to plant wind farms will only serve to reduce the ability of our hills and river valleys to cope with next winter’s storms. The thousands of heavy constructions vehicles thundering through conservation villages will cause severe vibration in centuries-old cottages, never built to withstand such an onslaught.

Please tell Ayrshire Council that ‘enough is enough’. The people of Ayrshire have already done more than the rest of the country, we simply can’t afford to give away any more of our countryside.

Click here and object to Knockskae Wind Farm now.

Linfairn Windfarm: What’s new and what’s next?

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…

linfairn new no writing

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..

Linfairn west View

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!