National park accused of ‘nimbyism’ over wind farm objection

National park planners have been accused of ‘nimbyism’ by an environmental charity’s leader after they opposed plans for a wind farm near Loch Lomond.

The Vale of Leven Wind farm proposal is for up to ten turbines each of which would be a maximum of 250 metres tall and with a capacity of 70MW – enough energy to power more than 50,000 homes.

In February Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park Authority voted unanimously to recommend refusal of the ‘extremely large’ turbines, saying they would represent a ‘step change’ as the largest in the region.

Now – six weeks later – a remarkably outspoken statement has been issued by John Urquhart, chair of the Friends of Loch Lomond and The Trossachs.

“Their arguments are of the all too familiar NIMBY variety – you know the kind of thing – of course wind turbines are essential, but can you please put them somewhere else because we don’t like the look of them,” he said.

“The fact is that there is no good evidence that wind turbines spoil views or are hugely unpopular.

“There are now umpteen windfarms up and down the country and yet to the best of my knowledge there has been no sign of the citizenry being overly troubled by their presence.

“There is plenty of evidence of course of the activities of a few nimby zealots writing letters to the press claiming their house prices are falling, the turbines are noisy, the turning blades cause ‘flicker’ which can damage your mental health and anyway half the time they don’t work because the wind doesn’t blow and the other half of the time, they have to be switched off because the wind is too strong – all of it of course, just so much vacuous bumkum.” (sic)

National park officials recommended objection to the plans specifically because of the size f the turbines, an issue that Mr Urquhart does not address.

In a report, they said: “Given the extremely large turbine size, the proposed development would often appear dominant or very prominent in the backdrop to the southern part of Loch Lomond and its associated rural setting.

“With a very intrusive and industrial appearance, the turbines would considerably detract from, contrast with and often compromise a very large number of special landscape qualities and key characteristics that are integral to defining this iconic part of the national park.”

Community benefits from the proposal would be worth £14.4m over 40 years for the Kilmaronock and Balloch & Haldane community council areas.

But planners said the turbines would have a ‘very intrusive and industrial appearance’ – although 1.9km from the national park boundary they would be significantly closer than other operational wind farms in the area and also much larger.

They also expressed concern about the developers’ impact assessment, saying some landscape character types had been excluded, while photomontages did not include borrow pits, battery energy storage systems, or access tracks.

The size of the development means it will be decided by the Scottish Government Energy Consents Unit rather than the local planning authority.