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11 March, 2010
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Published: 01 December, 2006
I WRITE this letter as a member of the public and not in my role as Garve and District Community Council Secretary who finds the remarks made by the Charles Sandham, chief executive of Infinergy in your article ‘Website promotes wind farm’ November 24 an insult to the intelligence of people in the Garve and district community. He says, and I quote, “it is important that the views of the community as a whole are heard, and not those of the vocal minorities”. The public is not a vocal minority, they are well-informed and have voiced their opinion by voting at two well-attended public meetings and by postal ballot to reject wind farms in the district, including the Lochluichart project. The questions I would raise with Infinergy is why it has taken so long to inform the public and set up a website regarding their intention for Lochluichart. In their latest document to the Scottish Executive they lay claim to have spoken to the community in June 2004, yet it was December 2005 before they did any presentation to the community at large, only after they had submitted their original planning application for 43 turbines; and now in November 2006 after submitting their addendum to reduce the site to 22 turbines they consider it a good idea to develop a website. We all agree that an alternative to conventional power generation has to be found and I have supported well-planned and designed renewable projects in a number of places, but let us not forget that the Infinergy project will, according to the latest addendum, create 22 turbines rising 125 metres from the ground to the tip of the blade, that’s over 410 feet from the ground, taller than almost every building in Scotland, and on a site several kilometres wide. Wind generation is about saving the environment so why build a power station this large in an area of outstanding beauty and destroying our environmental heritage with concrete and steel that has a short life span in industrial terms; why not build on industrial waste land closer to the power requirement? The communities in and around Ross and Cromarty are intelligent well informed people who understand only too well what is being proposed. There have been well over 1,500 objections to the wind farm submitted to the Scottish Executive and Highland Council, hardly the response of the vocal minorities, so please Mr Sandham don’t insult our intelligence. Donald G Northwood, Achanalt House, Achanalt, By Garve 
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