The site of the Stronelairg windfarm. Photo: Kevin Lelland
A conservation charity has called for reform of the planning process after it had to pay £50,000 to an energy company.
The John Muir Trust said the final settlement with Scottish and Southern Energy brings to an end its campaign against the Stronelairg windfarm development in the Highlands.
The trust was forced to pay the sum in legal costs after it lost a legal appeal. SSE originally pursued the charity for £350,000 but the lesser sum was agreed between the two parties. The John Muir Trust has also had to pay £75,000 to the Scottish Government over the case.
JMT head of policy Helen McDade said: “The trust took this legal case because the Stronelairg development will destroy a large area of wild land.
“We believed that the consent of a massive windfarm in the Monadhliath Mountains was the result of a defective planning process. The trust won the initial judicial review with the judge stating that the case was taken in the public interest. Losing the case at appeal more than doubled the trust’s potential liability and prevented us from continued action.
“This case has highlighted in planning and legal circles the urgent need for planning reform.
“Two weeks ago SSE were pursuing the Trust for costs of £350,000, which would have been devastating for any environmental organisation and a deterrent for anyone that might consider seeking environmental justice in the future.
“Naturally the John Muir Trust is relieved to have negotiated to reach a much reduced settlement. The generosity of more than a thousand supporters means that the trust could take this important case on behalf of people and nature. Undeterred, we will continue to stand up for wild places, while working towards a sustainable future.”
The energy company said: “SSE has accepted an out of court settlement, with the John Muir Trust, of £50,000 in relation to the expenses it incurred in the judicial review of the consent decision for Stronelairg windfarm, and sees this as an appropriate and reasonable conclusion to this matter.
“SSE is passing on the full amount of this settlement to Visit Inverness Loch Ness, which is a not-for-profit organisation in the Great Glen. The funds will be used to contribute towards the South Loch Ness Trail, which is a project to complete a walking and cycling trail round the whole of Loch Ness.
“SSE is proud to have already played a part in the construction of this trail, and hopes that this contribution will help achieve its completion and allow the benefits to be enjoyed by both locals and visitors to the area.
“SSE is committed to being a sustainable company, helping to achieve environmental, social and economic wellbeing for current and future generations. This includes the appropriate development and delivery of renewable energy projects as an environmentally positive way of meeting people’s energy needs and addressing the key issue of climate change.
“The Stronelairg project was designed in keeping with this ethos. Following statutory requirements it was democratically approved by the Highland Council planning committee, was not objected to by the local ward councillors hosting the development, and was granted consent from Scottish Ministers in 2014.
“Construction work is progressing well on the project, which is sensitive to environmental considerations and will continue to bring important employment, supply chain and sustainability benefits to the communities around the project. This includes community funds established by SSE with a total value of £28.5m over 25 years. The contribution to Visit Inverness Loch Ness is in addition to these community funds.”
Paul Cooley, SSE director of generation development, said: “We are pleased to reach a reasonable conclusion with the John Muir Trust on the issue of expenses for the judicial review process.
“We are also happy to be able to gift those funds to the excellent South Loch Ness Trail project which will allow many members of the local community and tourists alike to enjoy all the Loch has to offer for years to come.”
Graeme Ambrose, chief executive of Visit Inverness Loch Ness, said: “We are absolutely delighted that SSE has chosen to pass on this £50,000 to Visit Inverness Loch Ness.
“The South Loch Ness Trail was established in 2011 and has progressed with the support of SSE, public agencies and local community groups. The completion of the final section above Fort Augustus has remained elusive but we are confident this contribution from SSE will ensure that it happens very soon.
“This transformational trail will then link up with the Great Glen Way and create a ‘360 degree’ long-distance trail around Loch Ness.”
A JMT spokesperson said: “Looking ahead, we see several challenges emerging, especially in the far North of Scotland. These include the Caplich windfarm, near Assynt, which goes to public local inquiry in June and the re-submitted Limekiln windfarm, in west Caithness, which is likely to go to inquiry.
“Our campaign will focus on obtaining expert advice, attending public local inquiries, and delivering reports and consultation responses to influence government policies.
“The trust believes in a more positive vision for this remote and beautiful area, and is actively supporting the campaign for world heritage status for the Caithness and Sutherland Flow Country peatlands.”
GeorgeH
13 May 2017This illustrates perfectly the insatiable greed of the wind industry at it's worst!
As Ansel Adams once said -
“It is horrifying that we have to fight our own government to save the environment”
Matt Dalby
13 May 2017If SSE have donated the money from JMT to South Loch Ness Trail why did they bother to claim it in the first place? The only reason I can think of was to try and financially destroy JMT so they couldn't stand in the way of SSE destroying the Highlands for profit from future wind farms.
Forget the greenwash of supporting South Loch Ness Trail, SSE are only interested in profit at all costs. Anyone who cares about our natural heritage should switch suppliers and tell SSE why they are doing it.
Alan Smail
14 May 2017Agree - I see no reason to claim the money and then pass it to another NF profit body elsewhere? Why?
Realist
14 May 2017Is there not an element of the greater good in the underlying wind farm application?
Fossil fuels are finite and greenhouse gas emitters. This is irrefutable.
The wind farm will generate, once built, pollution free power supplying 114,000 homes for years to come, when the wind blows of course.
We cannot want to wean ourselves onto newer forms of cleaner energy without building wind farms (and tidal / solar and hydro) and if not here they will go somewhere else just as high. You need a constant "supply" of wind - high places get that more than the valleys, and this is a remote area, where very few people will go to it. But it's a windy place.
I doubt any of the homes supplied will care where their power is generated from. They have no say, they just want the lights to come on, when they need them to.
JMT stated it will destroy a large area of land. I disagree, in the 39 square kilometres (give or take one or two - source the site location map from 2012) that the planning application covers, there will be a road linking the turbines and the physical footprint of the turbines themselves. Depends on the JMT definition of "large", but it is not a large overall percentage of the area.
SSE Could have put considerably more turbines into this area. By building the road and laying the cables, you have the supporting infrastructure there, why not put in an extra 100, that makes much more business sense to improve the return on the substantial investment.
I expect to receive a large number of adverse comments to the above, but before you do, consider coming home and you find that none of your appliances work or your mobile doesn't work as the cell tower has no power, or that we experience brown outs every other day. No one wants this. So you have to make sacrifices.
paul
15 May 2017Build turbines, but build them where the power is needed. Cover cambridgeshire where I live with turbines before building any on wilderness land. If you build a turbine on farm land you can still farm the field below it and most of cambridgeshire is just flat farm land.
They have built some, but wont build more because there are too many tory voters down here that object because they think it is countryside. They also get more subsidies in scotland because scotland often produces more energy than it uses so the windfarms are paid to turn off as there isnt the right infastructure to get power down to england where the power is needed.
GeorgeH
15 May 2017Reply to Mr 'Realist' -
"Reliance on wind actually INCREASES EMISSIONS AND FOSSIL FUELS OVERALL, due to inefficiencies introduced into the system. Big Wind eliminates none of the need for conventional capacity, but rather consumes vast quantities of additional fuel and raw materials, while spewing emissions during the manufacture, transportation, construction and maintenance of the enormous redundant turbines and their uniquely demanding infrastructure.
The Wind Game is nothing but an obscenely costly, mostly useless energy redundancy scheme. It funnels unimaginable profits from our taxpayer and rate-payer pockets to its inner circle, while knowingly ignoring its victims' desperate pleas for relief - and indeed ridiculing them and trying to bury all the growing evidence of harm to their health and well being.
We've witnessed three decades of this callous, mercenary assault, this arrogant denial of what is known to be true, this untold suffering of thousands of innocent victims around the world. It's time to bring in the human rights and social justice referees - and call "game over"
EPAW 2nd March 2017 (University of Virginia Medical School)
TH
15 May 2017The developers aren't stupid. They will cover a much larger area eventually, by stealth. Put an application in for a smaller area initially, then a few years later, apply for a small extension. Then after 25 years apply for the initial turbines to be replaced by new ones which are twice as high.
JMT are doing a great job in trying to stem this spread onto wilderness land.
Griff
15 May 2017It speaks volumes of SSE to go after John Muir trust for costs etc.....I will be boycotting SSE and any offshoot companies and recommending others do so also !
Greedy buggers, the need to start putting Wind farms in the South East....plastered in them here in Wales and nowt in the Cotswolds or Home Counties....Why not ?
It's amazing how many times it's too windy for them on the Welsh hills....Lowlands may well be far more suitable.
A Piglit
17 May 2017Memo to JMT - next time use different lawyers
Gary D
18 May 2017If I were an SSE customer I'd switch.