Giant Wind Farm Proposed for the Heart of Scotland
PERTHSHIRE SELLS ITS SCENERY. In fact, the natural beauty of the landscape of Highland Perthshire is the foundation of a multi million pound industry, attracting visitors from all over the world and sustaining the rural communities.
The quality of the Highland Perthshire landscape is such that it has been awarded with not one, not two, but three National Scenic Areas. From the gateways to the highlands at Crieff and Dunkeld, the glens, mountains and heather moorlands are the jewels which delight the eye of not only visitors to Perthshire but are also treasured by local residents.
The Griffin Wind Farm proposal lies in the centre of this ‘golden triangle’ of superlative scenery. The plan is for 68 enormous turbines (with heights of up to 124m, they will be more than twice the height of most turbines seen today in Scotland).
Coupled with around 25-30km of bulldozed roads covering the hillsides, the development site would cover an area the size of the city of Perth!
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The visual impact of such an enormous industrial development in this superb nationally important landscape would be immense. Travellers on the Crieff to Pitlochry National Tourist route coming out of the Sma’ Glen will be faced with views of this massive development for most of the next 12 km of their journey.
The development will also be
• visible from other important tourist roads;
• visible from the summits of hugely important mountains such as Ben Lawers, Scheihallion and Ben Vrackie and from the more accessible summit of Birnam Hill;
• visible from most of Highland Perthshire’s grouse moors;
• visible from many moorland footpaths, including those on the Dunkeld walks network, and walks around Pitlochry and to the north and west of Aberfeldy; and
• right in the middle of the Griffin forest walking/cycle paths. Many of these footpaths and cycle routes have been developed over recent years to enable more people to have access to the wonders of Highland Perthshire’s natural beauty.
The potential impact of this development could be felt far and wide by many local businesses.
The concerns that local people have are real and well founded about the months of chaos and increased risk of serious accident on the local roads network, plus the fear for the security of supply and quality of the very basic necessity for life – water.
Traffic & Water Supply Anxieties
At a public presentation at the Birnam Institute on Wednesday 14 September, ASWAG will make presentations on its position, including a slide showing of the construction of a wind farm.
Residents in the area are concerned that the proposed development, for a 68 turbine wind farm, will put their water supplies at risk.
Over 200 people in more than 60 households living in Strathbraan are totally reliant on private water supplies, which come from the very hills where the wind farm is proposed. The families in the glen get their water either from springs or boreholes located within the development area of from the River Braan, which is fed by streams running from the wind farm site.
The local people are greatly concerned that the construction of the wind farm, which would involve sinking massive concrete bases into the ground, mixing huge amounts of concrete on site, the opening up of two vast quarries and miles of access tracks, will put their water at risk of pollution or might completely dry up their supplies.
ASWAG claims that Green Power, which has submitted an amended application of its wind farm proposal, has failed to meet with local residents to discuss the issue of this threat to water, and has yet to carry out a survey to locate people’s private water supplies.
The community is also concerned that all construction traffic for this massive wind farm development will be entering and exitingon the Perth to Inverness A9 at the Dunkeld / A822 junction. This is already known to be one of the most dangerous roads in Scotland and the A822 joins the A9 at one of the numerous bottlenecks where the A9 is single carriageway.
This junction has no flyover or sliproad and already sees long queues of traffic waiting to cross or join the A9 in the summer months. The wind farm development will require many thousands of heavy vehicle movements including cement trucks, water tankers, heavy construction plant, enormous cranes and of course the massive turbines themselves during their estimated 18 month construction period.
This is Green Power’s own visualisation of how the Griffin Forest Wind Farm would look like from Birnam Hill with Schiehallion on the central horizon
But above all, the precious treasure that is Highland Perthshire’s landscape is given to us not to squander and destroy but to safeguard and use sustainably for the benefit of the whole community, both today and for the generations to come.
Action Call
Is a wind farm of the size and scale proposed truly sustainable in this nationally important landscape? A landscape that is not only Perthshire’s economic lifeblood, but also its spiritual lifeblood?
This precious treasure needs your help. Let the decisionmakers know that the people of Perthshire and beyond say NO!
Please write to the addresses shown on the right (before 21 September 2005) stating that you object to the Griffin Wind Farm.
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