Scottish Ministers give green light to proposed Strath Oykel Wind Farm despite fierce local opposition
The Scottish Government has overruled the recommendations of its own planning reporters to give the go-ahead to a controversial proposed wind farm in Sutherland despite fierce local opposition.
Developer Energiekontor UK has been given the green light to build the proposed 11-turbine 73MW Strath Oykel Wind Farm in commercial forestry on the skyline above Rosehall, Altass and Brae.
At 200m, the turbines will be among the tallest in Scotland and the development will be barely a mile from the nearest property. It will also include a 5MW battery electricity storage system (BESS) and an on-site 132kv substation.
Wind farms above a threshold of 50MW are determined by the Scottish Government rather than local councils under Section 36 of the Electricity Act 1989.
Members of the North Planning Applications Committee agreed at a meeting in 2022 to object to the Strath Oykel Wind Farm on the grounds of its likely individual and cumulative impact on the landscape and visual amenity.
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Councillors stood by their decision when asked to reconsider the application following the introduction of the new planning policy, National Planning Framework 4.
A local authority objection automatically triggers a public inquiry and a three-day inquiry into the Strath Oykel proposal was held in October last year.
Residents in the Rosehall area were given the opportunity to read out statements to the inquiry as to how the wind farm would affect them. They are concerned about blade flicker, noise and the cumulative effect with other wind farms in the area.
Local campaign group No Ring of Steel (NORoS) said the area was at saturation point and a wind farm of this scale would put wildlife and fishing at risk, as well as destroying the landscape and the tourism market that depends on it.
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A total of 231 public representations were made to the planning application, all of which were in opposition.
The reporters who heard the planning inquiry recommended that the application be refused, but Scottish Ministers have now taken a different view.
The decision to allow the development was published today on the Scottish Government Energy Consents Unit portal.
The decision letter published on the site acknowledged that the development would have some adverse impacts, but said that measures would be taken to mitigate these.
The report concluded: “The Scottish Ministers find that the significant effects on residential visual amenity do not constitute a failure in maintaining residential amenity overall, that the significant effects on the landscape and on visual amenity are contained to the extent that they are acceptable overall in the context of the benefits the proposed development will bring in terms of its contribution to renewable energy and climate change targets.”
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