News release
An urgent appeal to the Communities Minister, Rhona Brankin, was made today by environmental groups, Friends of the Ochils and the Ramblers Association Scotland, in an attempt to avoid the Ochils being covered in windfarms.
A Clackmannanshire Council committee is proposing to sit on the 28th March to determine a 13-turbine windfarm proposal at Burnfoot Hill, below Ben Cleuch, the highest point in the Ochil hill range and a popular hillwalking destination. This is in advance of the end of a complex series of Public Inquiries in neighbouring Perth & Kinross Council area which are hearing evidence on the cumulative visual impacts of 4 large windfarm applications in the Ochils, east of Glendevon.
Davie Black, Wildland Campaigner for the Ramblers’ Association Scotland said: “My concern is that Clackmannanshire Council may approve Burnfoot without any knowledge of the outcome of the 4 Public Inquiries being held at present in Perth. How can they make a proper assessment of the cumulative visual impacts against one or more windfarms without understanding the landscape arguments currently being discussed at the Inquiry?
“We are asking the Communities Minister to directly intervene in this matter, and direct Clackmannanshire Council to delay determining the Burnfoot proposal until we hear the result of the Public Inquiries of the 4 proposals currently under consideration. This will then allow Clackmannanshire Councillors to make a decision on Burnfoot Hill based on all the evidence of the impacts across the whole Ochil landscape.”
A large wind turbine development at Green Knowes, above Glendevon, has already been given planning approval, and the Public Inquiries into further wind turbine developments has been hearing evidence since November 2006. The final submissions to the Inquiries should be lodged by Easter 2007.
Stuart Dean, vice-Chair of the Friends of the Ochils said: “Without the Minister exercising some control over the timing of the Burnfoot Hill planning application, we could be sleepwalking to a disaster in the Ochils. One approved windfarm is one too many but three, four or more would spell the end of the Ochils as a beautiful range of hills that draws hundreds of thousand of visitors annually”
End
