Thurso renews calls for early guidance and leadership on Windfarms

12.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Tue 17th Aug 2004

Local MP John Thurso has again called for tighter planning guidance to be given on the siting of wind turbines. Responding to a letter from the Deputy Enterprise Minister, Lewis Macdonald, MSP, he calls on the Scottish Executive to provide urgent guidance and leadership on the cumulative effect of the plethora of planning applications in the North Highlands now coming before both the local authority and Scottish Executive.

John Thurso said:

"I believe we are fast approaching the point of potential over saturation and we risk spoiling our greatest asset - our natural environment and landscape.

We need a much more balanced planning process with criteria which assess both the suitability of sites and the proposed volumes. We need a planning process which accepts a limit on volume and defines those limits where the installation of further turbines would be unacceptable on environmental grounds or inappropriate because there is too great an impact on the local population."

John Thurso letter to Lewis Macdonald dated 16th August:

Dear Lewis

Thank you very much for your letter of the 11th August from which I am pleased to note that you and your Ministerial colleagues will be responding formally to the Enterprise and Culture Committee report on the Development of Renewables and, in particular, to the recommendation that there should be a national strategic framework for wind applications.

As you will be aware from our meeting in Kinlochbervie last month there are a number of communities along the North and West Coast which are very keen to take forward renewable energy proposals which could deliver considerable benefits to their areas, and undoubtedly such a framework would be helpful to them.

In Caithness and East Sutherland, however, the plethora of applications which have come forward in a relatively short timescale have caused a very deep unrest as no-one can be sure what may or may not be granted. For Caithness and East Sutherland, therefore, guidelines are extremely important and urgent.

I would in particular ask that you consider guidelines in respect of two aspects which are causing considerable concern. The first is the proximity between potential sites. We have one application under way in Caithness which is for a suggested 47-turbine windfarm to be sited some 3km distance from an existing 21-turbine windfarm and it has been expressed to me strongly by local residents that having the same sites in such proximity it too much. Guidance on this point would be helpful to both potential developers and residents.

The second area where guidelines would be helpful is in respect of the proximity to dwelling houses. There are a number of applications coming forward which envisage fairly major windfarm sites as close as 400 metres to the nearest dwelling houses which it is felt, quite rightly in my view, to be far too close. It would therefore be very helpful to have guidelines on the minimum distance from dwelling houses.

However, the overwhelming worry which is now being expressed to me on a daily basis by very many residents and to which I referred in my letter to the First Minister, is the cumulative effect. It would be immensely helpful for the Executive to provide early guidance and leadership on this aspect.

Yours Ever.

Lewis Macdonald's letter to John Thurso dated 11th August:

Dear John

Thank you for your letter of 15th June to the First Minister and the attachments enclosed.

You may be aware that the Enterprise and Culture Committee published its report into the development of renewables on 30th June. The report's recommendations are wide ranging and it makes a number of points in relation to the development of renewables technologies and policy in Scotland.

One of the recommendations of the report is that there should be a national strategic framework for wind applications. My Ministerial colleagues and I will respond formally to the Committee report in due course. I will send you a copy of that response.

Yours sincerely

John Thurso's letter to Jack McConnell dated 15th June:

Dear Jack

I have been very interested to read an interview which you gave a little while ago to the Press and Journal and, in particular, what you had to say about possible solutions to our energy problem. I very much concur with the comments attributed to you in respect of the potential which Scotland offers for offshore development - wind, wave and tidal - and this is an issue I raised last year with the DTI following the selection of the first three strategic sites flowing from the 'Future Offshore' consultation. I enclose a copy of the exchange I had with Stephen Timms, MP.

I am also taking the liberty of enclosing a copy of a two year correspondence I have had with Ministers within the Scottish Executive and the Highland Council about onshore wind development. You may not have an opportunity to read the full correspondence but I would draw your attention in particular to a letter dated 14th October 2003 which I received from Councillor Alison Magee, Convener of Highland Council, in which she states

"It remains difficult for the Council to prepare more definitive guidelines on primary areas of search, secondary areas of search or sensitive areas, which should be excluded when the Scottish Executive itself is not prepared to give any target or range figure for the contribution which Highland might make to its aspiration for 40% of electricity in Scotland being generated from renewable sources by 2020."

As I hope the wider correspondence makes clear, I believe there is a considerable opportunity in the North for renewable energy, including an appropriate use of wind-generated power. However, from an early stage, I have been aware that there is a danger of the accumulating effect delivering the unintended consequence of spoiling our greatest asset - our natural environment and landscape. In the interview you gave to the P&J you seemed sensitive to that argument.

I remain of the view that there is room for some development of wind energy but that in order for our other assets to be safeguarded it is necessary for a planning process which accepts a limit on volume and defines those limits where the installation of further turbines would be unacceptable on environmental and tourism grounds. In the Highlands, I believe there is a very real danger of excessive development, and development at inappropriate sites, and there is urgency in the need for much clearer guidance from the Scottish Executive.

Will you give it?

Yours Ever.