Our Press Release - 16th June 2023
PRESS RELEASE FROM COMMUNITIES B4 POWER COMPANIES 16.6.23
Communities B4 power Companies demand Highland Council call in their decision to not object to SSEN’s plans To ravage Skye’s stunning landscape with huge pylons and transmission lines. The new lines will facilitate multiple new onshore wind turbine applications and they and their infrastructure will further despoil one of Scotland’s treasures.
Letters are being sent to Highland Council from Skye residents demanding action.
Spokeswoman for CB4PC Lyndsey Ward says:
“Highland Council’s decision to not object to this massive project and allow proper scrutiny through a public inquiry was simply astonishing. Being a ‘necessary evil’ (quote from Councillor Drew Miller) as a reason not to object isn’t found anywhere in planning policy. Following professional advice CB4PC submitted a formal objection* to the Energy Consents Unit asking for evidence of need of the lines and pointing out that certain information from other statutory consultees had not been available to Highland Council at the time of their decision. For proper and fair democracy the new transmission lines proposed by SSEN should be examined by independent experts at a public inquiry.”
Andrew Robinson from Skye Windfarm Information Group says:
“The proposed SSEN Skye to Fort Augustus Reinforcement Power Line is not needed. It’s being built to take power from multiple proposed wind farms which developers are seeking to build on Skye – and yet we already produce ten times the electricity the island needs from the existing turbines here. It appears the Highland Council decided “not to object” to SSEN’s proposals before all the Consultees’ comments had been received. We are therefore asking the Council to reconsider it’s decision and instead to call for a Public Inquiry examining the need for the new power line - balancing this against the environmental damage the development will cause.
There is no clear strategic view for the development of renewables and the Highland Council and the Scottish Government’s Energy Consent Unit are allowing developers and private industry to drive forward piecemeal proposals that will wreck our beautiful natural environment whilst returning very little benefit to local communities.”
In April 2023 CB4PC also sent a formal Initial Consultation Response* regarding the Spittal to Beauly transmission line to SSEN and Ofgem, copied to the Scottish government and Highland Council, asking for evidence of need for the new transmission as analysis of the Scottish government’s own website shows Scotland already has sufficient generation to meet targets. CB4PC also asked for a clear plan of grid upgrades for the Highlands, Scotland and wider UK. In addition CB4PC asked that planning applications for each line were limited to one only instead of the confusing piecemeal approach by SSEN. There has been no response aside from acknowledgment of receipt and promises to ‘escalate’ our requests.
Lyndsey Ward adds:
“CB4PC has a rapidly growing membership on Facebook of rural folk who are reeling in shock when they discover the enormity of SSEN’s concrete and steel road show crashing over their lives. They have joined from Spittal to Beauly to Peterhead and Tealing.
Some have already been told Compulsory Purchase Orders will be used on those who do not freely give up their land to this grotesque industrialisation.
The Highlands will never be the same again if SSEN is allowed to railroad through our environment and our homes with their appalling proposals.
More industrial destruction will follow with many more new onshore wind turbines proposed to hook into these transmission lines. SSEN were also unable or unwilling to confirm at a public meeting if these would be the last lines we would be facing.
It is essential that public inquiries are held for all these transmission projects. It is an utter disgrace that such landscape altering proposals are not automatically granted one.
The Beauly to Denny and sprawling 42 acre substation at Balblair is a warning to all who think they will be able to negotiate with this profit driven multinational. It is a crime against nature and will come to haunt SSEN as its very existence is testament to all that is wrong when private companies answerable to their shareholders get a foothold in our communities.”
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*Attached
CB4PC Formal objection to Skye to Fort Augustus Reinforcement Power Line
CB4PC Initial Consultation Response to Spittal to Beauly proposals
Scotland Electricity March 2023 Briefing Paper
16th June 2023
