Following the decision of councillors to oppose an application for another windfarm in Moray, Highlands and Islands MSP Jamie Halcro Johnston has written to Energy Minister Paul Wheelhouse MSP demanding the Scottish Government respects the views of local elected representatives.
The decision by Moray Council’s Planning Committee to lodge an objection to Rothes III Limited’s plans for up to 29 turbines at a site north of Archiestown was agreed unanimously by members of the committee from all parties.
Mr Halcro Johnston said: “Not only are local people horrified by the prospect of yet more giant wind turbines encroaching on this beautiful part of upland Moray, but they are fearful that the Scottish Government will again ignore the views of their elected representatives.
“Unfortunately, they have good reason to be worried. The SNP Government in Edinburgh has overruled Moray Council on a number of previous occasions, such is their ideological obsession with onshore wind developments regardless of the environmental cost and the impact on the scenery which is so important to communities across Moray.
“The report considered by councillors stated that the development, if it went ahead, would leave the countryside “overly populated with windfarm developments” and would result in “significant adverse cumulative effects upon the landscape and upon visual amenity resulting in the creation of a windfarm landscape.”
“This is simply not acceptable. We should remember that local people will have to live with the consequences of these decisions for decades, long after the ministers and civil servants in Holyrood will have forgotten all about them.
“We should not expect local people and local communities in Moray to have these developments foisted on them - with local opposition simply overruled or ignored - just to allow the Government in Edinburgh to hit their self-imposed targets”.
