“The main worry about the windfarms, like Glen Ullinish II, to me,” he said, “is lack of consultation with all the relevant persons involved and affected. It isn’t taking on board concerns at a local level, from all points of view: road safety, the effect on the local environment. It just looked as if they were riding roughshod through the community, careless of what the effects might be, and that just reminded me of how they had approached the tolls.”
Glen Ullinish II, which is yet to receive consent, would be the biggest windfarm on Skye if it goes ahead, with 33 wind turbines of a maximum blade tip height of 200m and a 120MW capacity battery energy storage.
The Highland Council raised an objection to the project last year, and the council officer’s recommendation on an amended proposal is due to to be presented at the North Planning Applications Committee next week.
If the Highland Council votes to maintain the objection, it will follow another Skye windfarm proposal at Ben Aketil which was objected to – and will end up on the desk of the Scottish Government’s reporter for decision. Earlier this year, the Scottish Government gave the go-ahead to the Skye Reinforcement scheme, a £690 million upgrade to the powerlines between Fort Augustus and Skye.
Robbie the Pict’s concern is that “decisions are happening in conversations in Edinburgh or London or elsewhere”.
He said: “They’re not taking into consideration what’s happening on the ground here. There’s a total disrespect. Skye is not an appropriate area for wind farm development. Wind farm development clearly needs much in the way of technical support, and we don’t have the space, or the environment really because this is going to be destructive in a way that won’t be repaired in a hurry.
“It’s a bad idea. The location’s not right. It’s not suitable. But the bigger picture is that the will of the people is not being properly solicited. It’s not consulted and it’s not enacted, and that’s a concern to me, I think it’s reflective of the larger picture where Scotland isn’t serving its own population properly.”
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However, Muirhall Energy, the developer of Glen Ullinish II maintains it has done “close consultation” with the community. Managing director, Sarah McIntosh, stated: “Glen Ullinish II is a sensitively sited and well-designed project which was developed in close consultation with the local community and statutory consultees over the past three years. We strongly challenge any suggestion that significant and meaningful consultation hasn’t taken place throughout the project’s development.
“As a responsible and community focused developer, we have undertaken 24 public community events and held over 50 meetings with local stakeholders, individual residents and nearby communities to date. Alongside this our team has also supported a number of community events such as the Dunvegan Agricultural Show and provided STEM support to local schools.
“All feedback received through this ongoing engagement process has helped to directly inform the project’s design and has helped us to also identify additional ways in which we can support community ambitions and help to deliver long term legacy benefits.”
A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “Whilst it would not be appropriate to comment on a specific live planning application, there are already clear and well-established processes by which members of the public can make their views known when applications for consent are submitted and all material issues raised are taken into account before any application is decided.
“Potential impacts on communities and nature, including cumulative impacts, are important considerations in the decision-making process, and all applications are subject to site-specific assessments.”
Robbie the Pict, born Brian Robertson, lives near Broadford on Skye and is still campaigning for the convictions from the Skye Bridge toll regime to be quashed. “He describes himself as “in a period of transition because I’m trying to disentangle myself from 30 years of, of focusing on the toll and being committed to the toll”.
One of his concerns over windfarms is the impact on the roads of the transportation of turbine parts.
He said: “The first thing that crosses my mind when I start to consider the implications of moving wind turbine hardware. I don’t need to know anything about windmills to know that the road is not suitable. The track from the bridge up to Bradford contains probably four or five narrow bridges, which are the width of one HGV, which means traffic having to come to a halt to allow the larger vehicle to go by. The A87 road is an A road, and deserves full protection.
“Way back in 1991, we were promised that one thing we would benefit from is that the A87 will be upgraded. But there’s no sign of that happening except in patches. The five narrow bridges that I mentioned all need replaced, they need widened and that hasn’t happened. So that’s the thing that struck me obviously as a problem.
“I don’t pretend to be an expert on wind farms. All I’m looking at in this particular case. is the abuse of due process. There isn’t respect for the communities, there’s not a proper consultation that I can see and the factors that are important are being ignored, because it’s an inconvenient truth.”
Robbie the Pict’s concerns over roads are shared by those involved in the Skye Windfarm Information Group’s Paul Smith. A retired Skye resident, Smith has done his own forensic breakdown of the various challenge points, not only on the A87 road, but also at the jetty in Kyle of Lochalsh and the bridge.
“A key point,” he said, “that we tried to pick up on for the Ben Aketil inquiry is that road is the single access route across the island. It not only gives access for Skye, it also gives access to Raasay and the Uig ferry, which is one of the main transport connections to Harris, Lewis and the outer isles.. Bear in mind that anything that is brought onto the island is going to go along that and impact the A87, and any equipment going for civil engineering relating to the wind farms has to go up it.
“The issue with the roads relates to how they cope with all the overlapping windfarm projects at once – including the Skye Reinforcement Scheme, which is going to bring a lot of traffic in terms of HGV trucks. The biggest problem is going to be people being able to predict what the journey is going to be like on the A87. Are they going to hit hold ups? Are they going to hit road closures? Are they going to find civil engineering works restricting the road?”
Robbie the Pict also questions the ability of the bridge to take the weight of the parts. He called for “an engineering assessment of the state of that bridge.
“It’s been up there 30 years now and people should be examining it.”
However, Sarah McIntosh, managing director of Muirhall Energy, the developer of Glen Ullinish II, pointed out that the company are looking at alternate ideas for how to bring turbines to the site.
“Working with local stakeholders,” she said, “we are exploring several options for our turbine transport delivery routes, including creating a new landing location at Loch Caroy, which would reduce the delivery route to two kilometres of public roads. We are also working with other developers to minimise any cumulative disruption on the road network and exploring opportunities to create additional lasting legacy for the Skye community.”
But, for Robbie the Pict, the issue is not just Glen Ullinish II, but the multiple other windfarm proposals for Skye, including the expansion of Ben Aketil, which was recently the subject of a public inquiry and awaiting a decision by the Scottish Government reporter, as well as grid infrastructure like the Skye reinforcement project.
Robbie the Pict warns Skye is being ignored in windfarm plans
Thor Klein is a member of Skye Windfarm Information Group (Image: Lena Vurma)
Thor Klein, a campaigner for Skye Windfarm Information Group, said: “What was clear during the Ben Aketil inquiry is that nobody takes into account the cumulative effect of it. Every developer only talks about their respective project. In the case of Glen Ullinish, people will only talk about Glen Ullinish but nobody talks about the overhead line that is already consented and will be built. So that’s set. Then Ben Aketil, which potentially will be built and then all the other wind farm projects that are also in the pipeline.”
Members of SWIG, Andrew Robinson, Julia Kirkby, Lena Vurma and Thor Klein, in front of Ben Aketil (Image: Vicky Allan)
Sarah McIntosh pointed out the importance of such projects in realising net zero ambitions and the benefits to the local community.
“As a critical project,” she said, “that will help to support the UK and Scotland’s energy security and decarbonisation ambitions, the proposal has and will continue to bring significant benefits to Skye and the Highland region if consented, with £135,000 spent to date in support of community projects, a £7k per MW community benefit package worth over £60m over the operational lifetime of the site, a 10% shared ownership offer, exploration of community housing opportunities and potentially millions of pounds worth of local and Scottish supply chain contracts.”
Ms McIntosh added: “Working with local stakeholders, we are exploring several options for our turbine transport delivery routes, including creating a new landing location at Loch Caroy, which would reduce the delivery route to 2 km of public roads. We are also working with other developers to minimise any cumulative disruption on the road network and exploring opportunities to create additional lasting legacy for the Skye community.”
