Sutherland resident accuses Forestry and Land Scotland of ‘secret deal’ for wind farm land
A SUTHERLAND resident has accused Forestry and Land Scotland (FLS) of making a “cosy and secret deal” with a wind farm developer over public land to the south of the Kyle of Sutherland.
Local resident Andrew Graham-Stewart, from Bonar Bridge, is angry that the government agency has granted RWE development rights over publicly owned land without first consulting local communities.
Mr Graham-Stewart, a wildlife campaigner and the former director of the charity WildFish, Scotland says this is in direct contradiction to FLS’s Communities Strategy, launched in 2003.
He has now written to FLS chief executive Kevin Quinlan and Scottish Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs Mairi Gougeon in protest, calling for the contract between FLS and RWE to be cancelled and for a community consultation exercise to be undertaken.
German energy company RWE announced plans for the 29-turbine, 191MW Inveroykel Wind Farm and associated battery park last year. The turbines would be up to 230m high - more than twice the height of the Rosemarkie transmitter.
The site identified for the proposed wind farm is 9km north-west of Ardgay and Bonar Bridge close to RWE’s operational Rosehall Wind Farm.
On its website, RWE states: “The site includes land that is part of Scotland’s national forest estate managed by Forestry Land Scotland, and RWE has been awarded rights to develop the land for a potential wind farm.”
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Mr Graham-Stewart said in his letter: “The local community is overwhelmingly against this publicly owned land being developed into a wind farm, not least because it would dramatically increase further what already amounts to a cumulative overload of wind farms in the area.”
He revealed that he had submitted a Freedom of Information request to FLS asking for details of any consultations with the local community before the rights were granted.
FLS had replied: “As the land manager, not developer, FLS is not required to conduct any consultation with the local community or any other interested parties before entering an option to lease agreement with a developer, in this instance RWE.
“....It is the developer’s responsibility to consult with the local community during the planning application process, and it is through this democratic process that the community will have the opportunity to engage and express their views.”
Mr Graham-Stewart said: “FLS disingenuously justifies this failure to consult on the basis that FLS is “the land manager, not the developer”. As a consequence, the local community has had no say in the potential development of this land before RWE began the process of obtaining planning approval in November 2024.
“We are now in the unenviable position of fighting the profit-driven plans of a massive industrial conglomerate which has unlimited resources at its disposal.”
He added that FLS’s failure to consult made a mockery of its Communities Strategy, which builds on the agency’s established principle of community engagement including seeking input into the development of its land management plans.
“So, the Communities Strategy commitment of community engagement specifically includes plans that relate to FLS’s role as the ‘land manager’; this fundamentally undermines the assertion in the FOI response,” he said.
Mr Graham-Stewart’s letter concludes: “If FLS’s Community Strategy is to retain a shred of credibility, then surely you (FLS) should rescind the contract with RWE forthwith and now formally and meaningfully consult the local community before considering any more cosy/secret deals with commercial developers.”
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