Communities overwhelmed by 'David and Goliath' conflict over wind farm applications

Secretary of Ardrishaig Community council Gillian Hogarth told the Advertiser: “We have written to our elected representatives about their absence from the debate about the proliferation of wind farm applications across Mid Argyll and Kintyre and the lack of support to communities when dealing with these applications.”

At the community council’s meeting on Tuesday October 29 anger was expressed that Argyll and Bute MSP Jenni Minto had not replied to anyone who had written to her, nor responded to the letter sent to her on behalf of the community council.

When the Advertiser put this to Ms Minto she replied: “I am grateful to the community council for raising this matter with me. I hope to meet with them in the near future to discuss their concerns and explore how I can support them.”

In the letter sent to all the area’s MSPs, the MP Brendan O’Hara and Argyll and Bute Council, the community council said that the wind farm planning process was: “Pitting small, under-resourced local communities against corporates with deep pockets; lip-service is paid to the concept of community engagement.”

The letter said developers should provide communities with “financial and technical resources to enable them to engage in a meaningful way and on an equal footing”.

It also called for Argyll and Bute Council and other elected representatives to bring local communities together and to engage with them on this matter. 

In reply to the letter, Argyll and Bute Council leader Councillor Jim Lynch said: “We will be embarking on an engagement programme early next year and I will be happy to meet with community representatives in Ardrishaig as part of that. 

“In the meantime, I’d like to thank them for taking the time to copy their correspondence to us – given our stated priority of increasing our understanding of local issues, this is very helpful.”

Ardrishaig Community Council’s letter also called for “a regional analysis of all current applications to address the cumulative impact on the wider area”. 

This request echoes fears expressed throughout Mid Argyll and Kintyre regarding an onslaught of wind farms including current, scoped and planned developments.

Joanne Schofield from Muasdale told the Advertiser: “I feel that Kintyre and its wild beauty has been donated for development.”

And Mr James added: “It’s just the gross scale of all the wind farms; the area is set to become an industrialised hinterland.”