Our Press Release - 21st April 2023

COMMUNITIES BEFORE POWER COMPANIES WELCOMES THE NEW FIRST MINISTER’S COMMITMENT TO NOT IMPOSE POLICIES ON COMMUNITIES THAT THEY VEHEMENTLY OPPOSE TO.


Humza Yousaf, our new First Minister, made it crystal clear at First Minister’s Questions yesterday that he backed communities making their own decisions. Unlike his predecessor, Nicola Sturgeon, who personally refused to allow rural folk to veto wind developments in their own area.

While responding to a question by Donald Cameron about the fishing communities’ opposition to the Highly Protected Marine Areas Mr Yousaf stated:

'I will reiterate what I said last Tuesday that this government will not steamroll, will not impose on ANY community a policy they are vehemently opposed to'.

This cannot be interpreted in any other way than the First Minister meaning any community whatever the policy.

SSEN is proposing the most devastating transmission schemes that will see the Highlands speared with hundreds of massive pylons of 57m and a rash of wind developers, desperate for a hook up, seeking planning permission for thousands of more turbines almost four times the size of the pylons.

Lyndsey Ward spokeswoman for the new pressure group Communities B4 Power Companies said:

“We are delighted that this First Minister has at last promised ‘that this government will not steamroll, will not impose on ANY community a policy they are vehemently opposed to'.

We are demanding to see the facts and figures that have resulted in these horrific proposals by SSEN. The public are paying for their destructive Highland jamboree and we are entitled to see the evidence of need because from where we are standing it is not there. No longer will we accept the ‘you must have this because we say so’ line without proof of need. 

SSEN’s  three intended 400kv power lines are set to converge on the Highland village of Beauly  creating, in the words of SSEN staff, a ‘spaghetti junction’ of transmission wires. We have news for SSEN. We are not their spaghetti junction and nor will we be their collateral damage.

There are many communities the length of these proposed lines who vehemently oppose SSEN’s plans. Not one has come forward to support them.

Communities B4 Power Companies looks forward to our First Minister standing by his words and protecting Highland Communities from SSEN”


Ends
21st April 2023