This excellent article by Scotland Against Spin tells the story of the absentee farmer who intends to put up a 87 meter - 285 feet 540 meters to 643 meters from our homes in a beautiful little hamlet in a stunning part of Scotland. Greed knows no bounds and Fife Council have never listened to the local people here, which is why we are surrounded by industrial wind turbines. This farmer and I used to be good friends, he has never contacted me since he decided to take our money in the form of subsidies ... good friends should not put up turbines next door to their friends. Thank you for all your hard work and support Graham Lang and Linda Holt ... you have been amazing friends and so supportive since 2007 when all this madness started! TURBINE TACTICS BLATANT ABUSE OF THE PLANING SYSTEM IN FIFE A prominent anti-wind turbine campaigner says an East Neuk farmers blatant abuse of the planning system has inflicted years of misery on his neighbours and wasted Fife Council resources. Since 2010 Jack Dobie has made continuous applications to Fife Council for wind turbines at Carhurly Farm by Dunino. Each has been withdrawn for unknown reasons, with application number four currently with the planning department (1). Ceres resident Graham Lang said: For over four years scattered households around Carhurly Farm in the East Neuk have been living with the constant threat of a wind turbine going up close to them. Each time one application has been withdrawn, relief has quickly given way to trepidation as a further application for a taller turbine is submitted. Residents have learnt that withdrawing an application is not the end of the matter. If the applicant comes back in less than 12 months, they can make another application and have no fee to pay. A bit like buy one get one free except at Carhurly the applicant is on to his fourth application. Mr Lang, who set up East Fife Turbine Awareness Group in 2010 before co-founding national campaign group Scotland Against Spin, said the planning system for wind turbines was weighted in favour of applicants and against third parties (2). He said the Carhurly case was one of the worst hed seen in Fife, but farmers across Scotland were using the planning and subsidy systems to profiteer at the expense of their neighbours. He added: What we see at Carhurly is a war of attrition waged against innocent neighbours. On top of the strain of dealing with the applications, neighbours also suffer planning blight for which there is no compensation. Fife Councils planning department is given the runaround, and in the end its all of us as Council taxpayers who foot the bill for those who play the system. The latest application for a giant 87 metre turbine is bigger than anything that went before . It is causing concern not just among locals but also at the Ministry of Defence which ha sobjected because the turbine is in line of sight of the air traffic control at RAF Leuchars (3). This means the application is destined to be refused but the big question is why was it made at all. Any consultant or agent worth their fee would be able to use simple software to learn that the turbine would be unacceptable to the MoD and hence a non-starter. Mr Lang also criticised the current proposal for its unnecessary scale. An 87m turbine could easily support an installed capacity of 1500kw or more, but Mr Dobie has deliberately restricted its capacity to a third of its potential. The reason he has restricted its capacity rather than using a much smaller turbine is because this maximises the subsidy he can apply for. So his neighbours get maximum environmental impact, the grid gets minimum electricity, and Mr Dobie gets maximum income. Such a tactic is widely recognised as a legal scam and has nothing to do with saving the planet. When is enough enough? Mr Dobie already has operational turbines at his farms at South Cassingray and Balhouffie, and with farmers falling over each other to get on the subsidy bandwagon, the East Neuk is turning into a wind farm landscape. (4) EFTAG maintains a comprehensive database and map of all wind turbine developments, consented and in planning, affecting north-east Fife. Currently there are over 200 wind turbines consented or in the planning process affecting the area (5).
Posted on: Tue, 09 Dec 2014 09:11:28 +0000
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