Dava anti wind farm campaigners unhappy with Cairngorms park okay

Campaigners against plans for a wind farm near Grantown have voiced dismay that planning officers are recommending the Cairngorms National Park Authority makes no objection to the development.

The Scottish Government has asked the park authority for its opinion on the proposal, by energy giants RES, for 20 turbines at Cairn Duhie as part of the formal consultation before Ministers make the final decision.

Members will discuss the plans for the development and a 16-turbine windfarm at Hill of Towie, near Keith, at their planning committee meeting in Ballater tomorrow (Friday).

CNPA planners are recommending that they make no objection to either proposal.

They have said that the Cairn Duhie wind farm will only be seen from a limited number of points and will not have significant impact on the qualities of the national park.

Speaking ahead of the meeting, park planning officer Katherine Donnachie said: "Generally we are supportive of renewable energy projects, but large- scale windfarms are not appropriate within the national park or where they affect its setting, given the landscape value of the park.

"We have a very strong policy framework to protect the Cairngorms National Park and its landscape setting from the adverse impact of windfarms, and that includes the impacts of windfarms around the edge of the park.

"We do not object to all windfarms near the park as a matter of course – careful consideration is given to every windfarm application that the park authority is asked to comment on.

"On this occasion, and after a rigorous assessment with regard to the implications for the national park, we are recommending to members that we do not formally object to these two applications."

Campaigners against the Cairn Duhie development believe that the park is not listening to local concerns.

Mr Bill Evans, chairman of the Dava Action Group and Dava No More, said: "We are extremely angry and disappointed that officers are recommending that their planning committee make no objection to the Cairn Duhie wind farm proposal, which is only eight kilometres away from the national park’s boundary.

"This is especially true in light of the unanimous vote against the development by the local community at the public meeting in Grantown.

"The planners accepted that the development will be visible from a number of places in the national park, and appear to have ignored the fact that the road into the park from the north will be overshadowed by the 110 -metre turbines of the wind farm.

"The whole area around the Cairngorms is being blighted by wind farms. Visitors to the area come to see the remote natural scenery, not an industrial development."

Around 75 people turned out at a public meeting in the Grant Arms Hotel in Grantown on December 16 on the proposed wind farm, addressed by RES’s head of development in Scotland, Simon Peltenburg.

He was given a rough ride by opponents of the scheme, who said the wind farm will ruin the moor and hit tourism in the surrounding area.

In the report, Ms Donnachie states: "The proposed site is located to the north of the national park beyond the Dava Moor and within a transitional landscape leading north to the wooded landscapes and distant farmland leading to the Moray Firth.

"This landscape is not considered to contribute in any substantial way to the setting of the national park, and while it is agreed that the development will have a significant effect on the Dava Moor, this does not mean it will have a similar effect on the national park which sits beyond the Dava."

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