Kiltarlity News Published by Kiltarlity Community Council Issue No. 25 SPRING 2011 50p Community Council opposes Druim Ba windfarm iltarlity Community Council be adverse, some substantially so, and Members were also concerned that the K are formally objecting to the the Community Council believes that turbines would be on the flight path of Druim Ba Windfarm proposal. In the cumulative impact, of this wind- the rare Slavonian grebe, already threat- reaching the decision at a special farm added to other local existing, ap- ened with extinction, with potentially meeting on 14th April, the Com- proved or proposed windfarms, is not disastrous results. The local population acceptable. of this bird could be seriously affected munity Council were strongly in- Traffic and road access also gave rise and fail to resume breeding. fluenced by local public opinion to concern, such as inadequate provi- The Community Council agreed to and the likely visual impact of the sion at various points during the morn- make available a standard letter of objec- development. ing and afternoon for school buses and tion which can be used by members of At a public meeting held by the Com- children on the A833, which adjoins the public. munity Council in January a survey had the wind farm site, and disruption of revealed that, of about 160 people attend- HGV and other heavy commercial and Below: The Druim Ba site - the ing, almost 100 were opposed to the tourist traffic on the A833, which oper- white dots are the planned tur- windfarm, a view also clearly emerging ates as an Inverness bypass for north from discussion during the meeting, dur- bine locations. traffic heading to and from the Central ing the developer's public exhibitions and belt. For details of the application see next page . more generally. A key concern was visual impact and it was the view of the Community Coun- cil that that the landscape character and scattered rural community of Glen Convinth are totally unsuited to the de- velopment, and that the height difference between the valley floor and the turbines would accentuate their height and domi- nance of the landscape. The Community Council maintains that the adverse effect of the windfarm will be far greater than acknowledged by the developer because many new houses in the area are not yet marked on the Ordnance Survey maps. For example, about twenty homes in Ardendrain would look directly across at all twenty three turbines from about two kilometres, while much closer properties will be affected to an even greater extent. The developer has acknowledged that more distant views such as those from Kiltarlity Village near the village hall, Kinerras, Beauly railway station and the hills above Kilmorack are likely to 2 The Druim Ba Windfarm proposal ollowing a second series of sited within Kiltarlity ( see map ). ed by Highland Council, is involved in F public exhibitions in Febru- The developers estimate that the negotiations with the developers on com- ary the developers, Druim Ba windfarm will produce enough electric- munity benefit; these are in an early ity to power 38,000 households per stage and have been kept quite separate Sustainable Energy (DBSE) year and save 114,000 tonnes of carbon from the Community Council’s consider- lodged a formal Section 36 ap- per year. DBSE has accepted an elec- ation of the planning application. It is plication with the Scottish Min- tricity grid connection offer at Knock- standard for such negotiations to take isters (the development is too nagael south of Inverness. place before permission is granted or big to be considered by High- DBSE estimate that the project will refused, irrespective of and without prej- provide significant employment udice to, a community council’s stance land Council) on 16th March, through civil engineering contracts on an application. having made a number of during the construction phase, the ma- Druim Ba Sustainable Energy Ltd. changes since the proposal was jority of which should be directly for (DBSE) is a subsidiary of EFR first announced about a year the Highlands and Scotland, and that (Scotland) Ltd. (EFRS), a European For- ago. over the 25 year lifetime of the project est Resources Group (EFRG) company, there will be 975 full time equivalent A copy of the application can be seen at which is part of the Louis Dreyfus job years of employment created from Highland Council HQ in Inverness, in Group. The Louis Dreyfus Group is a planning, forestry, community benefits, privately-owned company, founded in the Scottish Government Library in, Ed- and from construction, operation, France in 1851. DBSE own the Blair- inburgh, and can be bought for £850 or maintenance and decommissioning. more Estate. £25 on CD. However, it can also be The developers also say that there The site is to continue as a commercial viewed online and a short non-technical will be improved recreational access to summary is available free of charge. forest. There will be no clear cutting of the forest, and that two habitat manage- (Kiltarlity Community Council thinks the entire forest and the turbines will be ment programmes will be implement- this is very unsatisfactory and has ex- placed in small clearings ("key-holes") in ed. pressed strong concern that a copy of the the forest, but with enough height to pro- DBSE have stated that they will pro- Environmental Statement (a key part of vide sufficient canopy clearance,. Each vide community benefit of £310,500 the Application) has not been made hectare felled during the construction is each year and that they will offer a available for reference within the com- to be replaced by the planting of at least share scheme to members of the com- one hectare of native broadleaves. munity. The Council has criticized the munity. Highland Council believes that lack of response to this concern.) developers should pay at least £4,000 - The final proposal is for twenty-three £5,000 per megawatt per annum. 3-Megawatt turbines, giving a total ca- It is now Highland Council policy that Kiltarlity SWRI pacity of 69 megawatts. The maximum benefit above £100,000 per year (ie all Catherine MacRitchie height (to the tip of a vertical blade) of a of the first £100,000 would be used turbine will be 145.5 metres which is just Secretary locally) should be paid on the basis of under 500 feet (477ft , 4ins). Druim Ba 55% local, 30% at a locality (the wider Forest, is on the ridge south of Blair- The WRI had their Christmas meal at local area) level and 15% at an all- more, in what is now known as the Blair- Brockies Lodge where Robbie and Highland level. more Estate. All the turbines would be his staff did us proud. We also had a Kiltarlity Community Council, assist- visit from Santa. Mary Ross read a poem about the WRI Choir which And … ideas are sometimes not as new as you might think had us all laughing. On 4th May 1763, Captain Forbes, Factor on the forfeited Lovat Estate, wrote from Beaufort with a Proposal to At the January meeting Alison erect a windmill to accommodate the sucken of Achnagairn, in place of rebuilding the former Water mill. wished us all Happy New Year. Our Part of the morass of Conan to be converted into a selement for Soldiers who are to be employed immedi- ately to perform the work. speaker was Ben Braithwaite who (Suck´en: The jurisdiction of a mill, or that extent of ground astricted to it, the ten- gave us an interesting talk on pho- ants of which are bound to bring their grain thither to be ground .) tography. In February Dottie Grant from Muir of Ord gave us a talk on her work with children who are the innocent victims of HIV—Mission Possible. The March meeting featured Mal- colm Harvey whose talk was on gar- den birds. Malcolm also had slides of birds, butterflies, a badger and a pine marten. And in spite of bad weather none of our meetings had to be called off. 3 A Major Blimp on the Horizon! Aigas Community by Shauna Jennens, member of Forest Druim Ba - Say No Pledge Campaign launched The skyline over Abriachan turned or- impression that the wind farm won’t be ange last week but the future will not be seen from Kiltarlity Village! In fact, igas Community Forest have bright if Druim Ba get the go ahead for a the developers themselves have includ- launched a campaign for 23 turbine wind farm on the Blairmore ed photo montages in their submission A Estate. proving just how intrusive it will be. pledges towards the purchase and Druim Ba Sustainable Energy has now The proof of the support for the cam- development of Aigas Forest. In lodged their application with the Scottish paign group was cemented by the fact order to buy the Forest outright Government and letters of objection that Mrs Lyndsey Ward, who organised the group need to raise £690,000 have been filed with The Energy Con- the blimp, raised a total of £1200 in but will need £750,000 to cover all sents Unit in Glasgow and The Highland two days from local residents and busi- the costs involved. They are now Council. nesses. seeking promises from interested In a final effort to demonstrate just Mrs Ward said, “The overwhelming individuals and companies who how high these turbines will be, the ac- commitment from the local community want to support their aims. tion group, Druim Ba Say No tethered a to fight this wind farm is fantastic”. The idea is that people who support the large orange blimp at Cragganvallie, Druim Ba Say No would like to thank attempt to buy the forest for the use and Abriachan (Cragganvallie is within Kil- everyone who contributed time and enjoyment of the local community can tarlity), adjacent to the proposed site for resources to this project.