A new survey reveals that more than 80% of Borders residents oppose a major windfarm development on their doorstop.
The Longmuir Renewable Energy and Biodiversity Project is a proposed hybrid energy park about 4.5 km north of Stow and near Oxton, featuring up to 10 wind turbines, a solar farm, and battery storage.
A new survey by Stow & Fountainhall Community Council reveals that 83.7% of local residents are opposed to the Longmuir windfarm, as the same site is targeted for the third time.
The vast scheme, previously marketed as Rowantree Wind Farm, was rejected in 2014 following a public inquiry and deemed unsuitable for a windfarm due to the noise, landscape effects and the detrimental impact on the Eskdalemuir Seismic Array, the UK’s only facility which monitors nuclear activity anywhere on the planet.
Now energy company Galileo Empower is targeting the same site, in unspoilt countryside near the village of Fountainhall.
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Graeme Steel, a local resident who has been campaigning against the plans since 2009, said: “People here are utterly appalled by the Longmuir proposal and the sheer number of energy developments scarring the landscape.
“The Scottish Borders has always been tranquil, beautiful and the kind of place where you can go for a walk and not see anything man-made. It was a place for people to come and connect with nature. Now there are vast wind turbines encroaching on all sides. The community council has done the right thing by reflecting the genuine concerns of local people.”
John Wilkinson of Inchkeith Organics based at Inchkeith Farm, Oxton, runs a family farm handed down through the generations.
Mr Wilkinson said: “The turbines would be 200 metres tall, twice the size of the windfarm proposed the first time around, plus 100 acres of solar panels and battery storage. Old Inchkeith, our traditional steading is only 750 metres away – it would have a huge impact on us, they would almost be looking in our windows. It’s very intrusive – there are so many turbines now in this area and they are so big. It’s industrializing the countryside.
“We are not opposed to renewable energy at all. We turned organic a couple of years ago – we support biodiversity too.
“In 2014 we wanted to put two wind turbines (45 metres high) on the farm – as I say we are in favour of renewable energy, we have a biomass boiler and a few solar panels on the shed roof.
“But the consent for those two turbines was not given at the time by the Ministry of Defence as it would affect the Eskdalemuir array and monitoring for nuclear activity.
“So we pulled out – if it would affect the defence of our country we didn’t want to do it; we hadn’t been aware of the issue. The threat of nuclear attack is still there – if anything it’s got worse — surely a windfarm the size of Longmuir can’t go ahead – there has to be implications on Eskdalemuir and national security.”
The 1,150 hectare Longmuir development proposes 10 turbines with a tip height of 200 metres, a battery energy storage system, concrete batching facility and a solar array covering 100 acres, as well as new access roads, anemometry mast, on-site substation and borrow-pits.
The construction phase would be expected to last for two years. The area of the site is equivalent to 1,610 football pitches.
Stow & Fountainhall Community Council has responded to the initial ‘scoping’ phase documentation produced by the developer, raising concerns that the development would have ‘severe impacts on landscape character’.
The community council also corrected errors in the developer’s scoping report, which incorrectly claimed there were no footpaths running across the site.
The community council notes ‘paths and tracks within and close to the site which are used by the public for walking, cycling and riding’.
The Scottish Government has required that the developer also assesses the impact of the windfarm on rare birds including Golden Eagle, Buzzard, Golden Plover, Oystercatcher and Redshank, in consultation with RSPB and NatureScot.
