SSEN super-pylon plan for Spittal in Caithness to Beauly suffers blow as Highland Council lodge comprehensive objection with Scottish Government Ministers
Highland Council has lodged a devastating eight-page objection that completely eviscerates a super-pylon line plan crucial to SSEN’s £7 billion transformation of electricity transmission in Scotland.
The energy giant wants to build a new 170 km power line running from Spittal in Caithness through Sutherland and Easter Ross to Inverness-shire.
Campaigners against the ‘Pathway to 2030’ scheme say it will “trash the Highlands”, scarring and industrialising the landscape, obliterating scenery and bringing negative economic, transport, health, noise and pollution impacts for local communities.
They have warmly welcomed Highland Council’s savaging of the plan in their intervention as an objector.
Many opponents accuse SSEN of eroding local democracy through a piecemeal and derisory approach to public consultation.
SSEN reject those criticisms, saying consultation has been thorough and extensive, while saying the ambitious upgrade of electricity transmission infrastructure is crucial to efforts to decarbonise the UK economy, hit net-zero targets and fight climate change.
The 400kV Spittal - Loch Buidhe - Beauly power line would link up with another proposed super-pylon line to Peterhead, as well as the existing Beauly-Denny line, to take electricity from a plethora of Highland wind farm, pumped storage and battery storage schemes to energy markets in the south.
The super-pylon line would be bookended by huge substations at Banniskirk near Spittal and Fanellan at Beauly that have also been heavily criticised for their vast scale and ruinous impact on landscapes and the lives of local residents.
Given the Spittal-Beauly line’s designation as a major energy infrastructure development, Highland Council acts only as a consultee in the process, rather than the planning authority.
Approval or rejection will be determined by Scottish Government ministers with the process administered by the Energy Consents Unit (ECU).
But the council’s comprehensively detailed objection on a dizzying number of grounds will force a public inquiry to be held into the project and threatens to delay SSEN’s controversial plans significantly.
It highlights multiple deficiencies in the SSEN proposal, including concerns of environmental, ecological and visual impact, failures to comply with national frameworks for issues such as climate change, and adverse impacts on residential homes, heritage sites, protected sites and the roads network.
Highland Council has faced its own scathing criticism from politicians and campaigners against the super-pylons, windfarm and battery storage schemes now peppering the countryside.
But the pressure group Communities B4 Power Companies warmly welcomed the authority’s intervention which came ahead of a November 7 deadline to make representations.
A statement by the group, which has over 6000 members, said: “Credit where it’s due, Highland Council has rightly stood up and objected to the controversial Spittal to Beauly 400kV overhead line.
“An appalling application, difficult to read, follow, or understand, has been rejected on numerous grounds by planning officials.
“SSEN cannot possibly mitigate the catalogue of concerns they were warned about in 2023 at public exhibitions. They ploughed on regardless, and submitted their application anyway and this rejection is 100 per cent deserved.
“SSEN wants to slash through the Highlands with the outdated Beauly to Denny-style lattice towers, feeding into substations so vast they defy imagination.
“No other private industry would be allowed to trample communities and wreck habitats for profit like this.”
The council’s stance, according to notes in its submission to the ECU, would force a Public Local Inquiry (PLI) earmarked for April 20 next year.
But the council report’s author, strategic projects team leader Peter Wheelan, states that date is “not anticipated to be achievable given the complexity of matters raised by this application” including demands placed on council planning officials as the host planning authority.
The council’s objections are too numerous to fully detail here.
But among them is the assertion that the Spittal-Beauly line plan does not comply with national planning framework 4 (2023) on tackling the ‘climate and nature crises’ on nine points, while breaching the Highland-wide local development plan (2012) on 11 points.
It states that “insufficient regard has been had to the desirability of conserving” plant life, wildlife and scenery, as well as sites of architectural, historic or archaeological interest.
In terms of design, landscape and visual impact, the document says SSEN’s plan will have “significantly detrimental” landscape and visual impacts given the “routing, design and considerable scale of the proposal’s steel lattice towers, above ground cabling, permanent and temporary track access … and the sensitivity of landscape.
It lists 10 scenic spots affected including the Kyle of Sutherland, Carbisdale and Dornoch Firth National Scenic Area and the Strathpeffer-Contin-Fairburn loop and over the hills to Fanellan.
It states that the internationally renowned Flow Country World Heritage Site would face “significant loss of peatland and bog habitat”, with an “unacceptable impact” that could not be avoided or lessened.
It also lists negative impacts on another dozen special conservation areas and protected sites; on protected wild species; habitats and biodiversity; lost ancient woodlands and damaged soils, all with little proposed to mitigate those impacts.
The objection is also scathing on the “insufficient information” presented in transport impact assessments, with concerns over large traffic flows through small communities already voiced.
Impacts on historic buildings and cultural heritage refer to the likes of Carbisdale Castle, Ardross Castle, Castle Leod and Coul House Hotel.
Turning to impacts on residents, it notes that “seven days a week working (with) daytime and evening noise” would potentially exceed acceptable levels.
The full detail of the Highland Council submission on SSEN’s Beauly-Spittal pylon line proposal can be accessed here by following the instructions and link to the Energy Consents Unit site, using reference number ECU00006008
A spokesperson for SSEN Transmission said: “We are disappointed to learn of the Highland Council’s objection to the proposed Spittal to Beauly 400kV overhead line project – a development which will be crucial for the delivery of Scotland and the UK’s energy targets, unlocking the homegrown low-carbon electricity generation required to help deliver a cleaner, more secure and affordable electricity system for current and future generations.
“Investing to upgrade our electricity transmission network is also a major driver of jobs and economic activity locally and nationally, including our ambitious housing legacy commitments, community benefit funding proposals and workforce expansion plans, delivering a transformational and lasting legacy in the local communities we serve.
“Throughout the development of the project we have undertaken one of the most extensive public consultation exercises that the north of Scotland has ever seen, where we have sought to minimise and mitigate the impacts of our proposals, balancing the views of local stakeholders against key environmental, technical and economic considerations. We would like to thank all stakeholders who have worked with our teams to provide constructive feedback which has been instrumental in helping shape the proposal.
“We look forward to the Scottish Government’s timely determination on the critical national infrastructure project, in line with its 52-week determination process for priority applications for electricity transmission infrastructure.”