LETTERS TO THE EDITOR: Protect rural communities against unnecessary industrialisation 'because we are worth it'
Fergus Ewing, SNP MSP, recently wrote that he wants people to “have a stake in the wind farms they look out upon”. That’s all very commendable Mr Ewing but you have seriously misread the room on this. Community bribery is not wanted or acceptable.
Instead of scatter gunning our landscapes with Scottish Government-backed giant turbines almost double the height of Scotland’s tallest building, the Glasgow Tower, you should be joining your constituents and targeted communities in asking for evidence of need for further wind turbines or their environment busting infrastructure currently proposed by SSEN.
Before election in 2007 Mr Ewing was highly critical of Labour-Liberal wind policy. He was quoted as saying: “The Scottish Executive policy seems to be based on the Martini advert: any time, any place, anywhere.” What has happened since has been catastrophic for rural Scotland. The turbines prior to 2007 were party poppers compared to the monsters of today.
Without a coherent policy of how to get power from remote wind turbines or have a guaranteed market to take any excess wind energy Mr Ewing’s party has presided over the felling of millions of CO2-absorbing trees, the digging up of thousands of acres of carbon-holding ancient peat, allowing Big ‘green’ Energy to ransack and colonise our iconic environment and devastate communities.
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Mr Ewing also said: “Wind farms have, however, a very heavy environmental footprint not only blotting the landscape in places such as Dava which has huge beauty and Lochindorb which is of considerable historic interest, but also in the release of substantial quantities of methane from peat landscapes”. Has he seen the wind-trashed Dava under his party’s watch? He added: “I believe that the current wind farm free for all policy is flawed and I hope that at a new Scottish Executive led by my own party from May will call a halt to this and introduce a balanced policy with a location strategy and community benefit.”
In 16 years since election the Scottish Government he has been part of, including as energy minister, has trashed rural Scotland and backed ruthless multinationals over its own citizens.
With threats of the most horrific infrastructure for yet more wind farms indisputable evidence of need must be forthcoming and we demand that our elected representatives stand with us and not with the multinational colonisers concerned only about their bottom line and shareholders.
If Mr Ewing is keen to use advertising slogans to make a point, maybe he would like to help protect rural Scotland and its communities against further unnecessary industrialisation “because we are worth it”.
Lyndsey Ward
Beauly
Spokeswoman for Communities B4 Power Companies
