Scottish windfarm plans in applicable enviornment over wildcats
The Scottish Authorities is going thru a judicial review over its decision to grant planning permission for a windfarm that can perchance perchance threaten an endangered wildcat population. The devolved govt granted permission for a £90m windfarm in Aberdeenshire excellent June. Swedish energy company Vattenfall plans to make 14 wind turbines with a total potential
The Scottish Authorities is going thru a judicial review over its decision to grant planning permission for a windfarm that can perchance perchance threaten an endangered wildcat population.
The devolved govt granted permission for a £90m windfarm in Aberdeenshire excellent June. Swedish energy company Vattenfall plans to make 14 wind turbines with a total potential of 77 megawatts shut to its present windfarm in Clashindarroch Wooded discipline.
Nonetheless, the planning permission will now be reassessed at a applicable hearing on 18 January as a result of concerns that highly endangered wildcats residing in Clashindarroch Wooded discipline would be tormented by the building of the mission.
Crew group Wildcat Haven has raised practically £250,000 to pursue applicable inch to present protection to Clashindarroch Wooded discipline from pattern and logging. It comes after the Woodland Belief estimated that there’ll likely be as few as 35 wildcats left in the wild.
Wildcat Haven director Paul O’Donoghue instructed Construction News that the extend in visitors and industrial exercise would turn the vital habitat at the woodland into an “ecological barren discipline”.
He acknowledged: “If a residing can not be protected for essentially the most threatened animal in Scotland then this sends out a truly unsafe message from ministers that no residing is accumulate from pattern.”
Wildcat Haven alleges the thought contradicts the council’s local pattern thought and Scotland’s National Planning Framework 4, which states that hurt to nature needs to be “minimised thru careful planning and diagram”.
A Vattenfall spokesperson acknowledged: “We diagram our windfarms so that they decrease carbon emissions and offer protection to wildlife at the identical time. Our windfarm at Clashindarroch has already been producing electricity for over eight years with no detrimental affect on the wildcat population and now we haven’t too prolonged ago carried out peat bog restoration and tree planting to offer extra duvet for the wildcats to hunt and jog.
“NatureScot scrutinised the Environmental Impression Evaluation for Clashindarroch II and have faith our conclusions and the proposed mitigation measures.”
Vattenfall operates 10 windfarms in the UK and is environment up diverse extra.
A Scottish govt spokesperson acknowledged: “Scottish ministers had been served a petition for judicial review. As the becoming direction of is ongoing, it’d be unhealthy to comment extra at this stage.”
Aberdeenshire Council’s planning department is also investigating Vattenfall after Natural world Haven’s applicable group raised concerns about residing exercise.
An Aberdeenshire Council spokesperson acknowledged: “We can verify now we have obtained data alleging a breach of planning administration.
“A case has been logged by our planning enforcement group for extra investigation to discover if a breach has occurred requiring any extra inch. We can not comment extra on the shriek material of filled with life investigations.”
