Benvironment

Do you remember that famous, stirring old Scottish song?

By yon bonnie banks and by yon bonnie braes

Where the sun shines bright on Loch Lomond

Where me and my true love were ever wont to gae

On the bonnie, bonnie banks o’ Loch Lomon’

Much of Stirling remembers and treasures their Bonnie Banks o’ Loch Lomond, which is why a campaign group in Stirling has been re-formed in an effort to fight off a windfarm planned for the Loch Lomond area.

The prophetically-named Banks Renewables, based in Hamilton, have submitted an application to Stirling Council for a 60m wind-monitoring mast and up to twenty 100m turbines at Craigievern (Ard-Ghaoth), North East of Drymen and adjacent to the Loch Lomond & Trossachs National Park.

The Endrick Valley Action Group (EVAG) campaigned successfully against npower’s windfarm at Ballindalloch Muir, but they are now reformed and focusing on the new plans submitted by Banks.

The group is also concerned about an additional 14 turbines along the Carse of Stirling that have been submitted to the Council. These have primarily been lodged by ILI (Renewable Energy) and are mainly for turbines of 250 ft (76m).

Three exhibitions were held in June as part of the public consultation process, and a fourth was held last week in Gartmore.  One hopes that photographic mock-ups of the completed development in its landscape were on display……and that they were more accurate than the illustrative photo on the Banks press release of a single, lonely turbine in an idyllic rural landscape:

Here is an extract from EVAG’s press statement, released last week:

The turbines proposed at Craigievern (Ard-Ghaoth) are the same height as those at the Braes of Doune – higher than the Statue of Liberty. Those along the Carse would be taller than the Wallace Monument.

Visual impact, individually and cumulatively with wind farms already in existence, would be tremendous. It is inconceivable that tourists would have to drive through a wind farm corridor to get to Loch Lomond. And when they reach it, to take in the peace, tranquillity and beauty of an area which is renowned the world over, they would find that it, too, had been ruined. Visitors want to see the Bonnie Banks of Loch Lomond, not the turbines of Banks.

People seem to have come away from the Banks’ exhibition in Drymen with the belief that the proposal is a ‘done deal’, that it would be happening within weeks and that Stirling Council had purposefully delineated the area as capable of supporting a wind farm. EVAG is informing everybody of the lengthy processes which have to be undergone, and that Stirling Council’s Policy & Guidance makes it quite clear that the capacity to accommodate additional large turbines is considered to be severely limited.

If anyone requires further information, or can offer help with the campaign, we would ask them to contact EVAG at support@evag.co.uk, to visit the website which is under construction, www.evag.co.uk, or to ring 01360 661451.

In the interest of balance for those who might want to write in support of the development, I honestly tried to locate the application on Stirling Council’s website…….but to no avail.  I don’t know if that’s because the formal consultation period hasn’t actually begun or what…..but if you can make sense of Stirling Council’s website and faulty planning map then good luck to you.