SSE have abandoned their plans to extend Hadyard Hill wind farm with another 22 turbines. South Ayrshire’s Planning Committee had recommended refusal which meant a Public Local Inquiry would be held. SSE stated that they “decided for commercial reasons not to proceed with this particular application.”
We are delighted. The proposal would have had serious negative impacts on the Stinchar and Girvan valleys and many homes would have suffered unacceptable effects.
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Please follow the link here to view the draft guidance.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 Even if you only want to comment on one aspect of the draft guidance which you feel strongly about please let us know – and leave your own comment too of course!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.
The closing date for representations has now passed. Thank you to everyone who objected to this Extension. The full Save Straiton objection will be made available in the next couple of days.
Representations must be made by 5th June 2015
Views like this of the beautiful Stinchar valley near Barr would be ruined if SSE’s Hadyard Hill Extension were to go ahead. There are already 52 turbines in this wind farm – another 31 would completely overwhelm this area. The proposed turbines are significantly higher than those erected resulting in more noise and shadow flicker pollution for those living nearby. Unlike the installed wind farm this would be visible from both Barr, Dailly and Crosshill plus Wallacetown, Seasons Holiday village at Brunston Castle, the dramatic Nick of the Balloch and large sections of the Stinchar and Girvan valleys.
The developer admits that “26 properties would undergo a significant effect”. Others would have their amenity destroyed. Eight properties come within 1km with the closest only 720m from a turbine. We feel this is unacceptable.
The Merrick Wild Land Area would also be compromised – the proposed turbines are 25% bigger than the installed ones and located on higher ground.
We have prepared post cards which can be downloaded and printed out for friends and family to make an informed objection. Please print them out for those without access to the internet.
Click here to view objection points and here to object on-line.
Save Straiton for Scotland 