Our Press Release - 18th June 2024

CAMPAIGN GROUP COMMUNITIES B4 POWER COMPANIES DEMAND DETAILED EXPLANATION FROM HIGHLAND COUNCIL AS TO WHY COUNCILLOR’S PLANNING MOTION WAS REFUSED

It is a democratic outrage that Cllr Helen Crawford’s motion has not been accepted by the powers that be at Highland Council in order for it to be discussed at a full council meeting later this month. We sincerely hope that this decision has not been influenced by the forthcoming general election as all Councillors need to get on board with protecting the people who vote for them as have affected community councils – see attached press release from them.  It is high time that our elected representatives recognise the trauma rural communities are suffering at the hands of developers and this motion could have gone some way in doing that.  Ever since SSEN’s bombshell proposals in Spring 2023 communities have been reeling from: the tsunami of developments put forward; woefully inadequate public consultations; indecent haste of proposals; massively increased scale of substations; salami slicing of applications and the flood of new battery storage units. This piecemeal approach is not only unfair it is confusing and stressful for those expected to live in the shadow of this industrial onslaught. Communities need a just planning system that allows fully funded scrutiny of major developments by independent experts. All too often rural citizens have to spend hours of their own time and thousands of their own pounds just trying to understand complex planning applications and striving for a fair deal in the planning process.

Over a year ago Communities B4 power Companies asked the Scottish government and SSEN for evidence of need for Scotland for all this intended development but have not yet received a credible answer. We also asked for an overarching plan of what is expected, now and in the future, of developments in the Highlands, the whole of Scotland and the rest of the UK. We know from SSEN and OFGEM that SSEN’s overhead lines and monster substations are to facilitate the Scottish government’s own onshore wind policy and to encourage yet more turbines in our pristine landscapes. The extra energy is for export to England and beyond as confirmed by energy spokeswoman Gillian Martin MSP. It is for the global investment companies that own the likes of SSEN to make a vast profit on the back of our lives and environment.

Lyndsey Ward says: “Our membership at CB4PC continues to go grow and we now have almost 3300 supporters. Nearly every day we have to deal with distraught community members overwhelmed by what they are facing. They feel helpless and that their situation is hopeless. They are distressed as they fear devalued homes and being trapped where they no longer want to live. They cannot escape from this disproportionate industrialisation even if they wanted to. They feel their elected representatives have abandoned them and thrown them under Big Energy’s gravy train. Rural Scotland is being colonised by Big Energy and it would appear that the strategy is to keep communities in the dark as to the extent of the industrialisation that is coming at them so that they are ill prepared when planning applications go in. They see that SSE and SSEN have not had a refusal by the Scottish government for at least fifteen years and wonder who is calling the shots in Holyrood. It is time we were given the information and the assistance we need to protect not only where we live but our businesses and natural world from unnecessary and further major development before it is just too late”.

Dan Bailey from Strathpeffer & Contin campaign group Better Cable Route says “Councillor Crawford’s motion should have won widespread support. It’s crazy that developers can submit endless applications for ostensibly unrelated projects, while our planners and communities lack oversight of the whole picture. Since the framework in which decisions are currently made is clearly questionable, it would simply be common sense to defer any new decisions until we can put energy planning on a sounder footing with online mapping.”

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Attached Press Release from Community Councils