Newlands Hill Wind Energy Hub newlandshillwindenergyhub.com
ECU Reference ECU00004603
Unfortunately the ECU wont accept this petition as evidence so we need everyone who has signed it to email in with an objection, and also to share on your social media and contacts lists.
A meeting was held at Gifford Village Hall on March 6. We were delighted that so many people were interested to hear more about the Newlands Hill application, and we hope that everyone felt better informed about the impact that this proposal would have on this special corner of East Lothian should it be accepted.
Attached is a list of points which were brought up by our speakers on Wednesday. There are plenty of other reasons to object, but we feel that these broadly cover many of the concerns about this proposal. Wind energy, whilst it is a necessary part of the phase out from fossil fuels, should be strategically positioned, and we very much feel that this wind farm would be in the WRONG PLACE. With offshore wind farms in planning, which will produce significantly more energy than the needs of Scotland, we feel there is no NEED for these 17 highly visible turbines on the crest of the Lammermuir Hills - likely setting a precedent for more to be constructed.
Please do send an email to:
Representations@gov.scot with reference ECU0004603 – Newlands Hill Wind Energy Hub
And copy in MSP’s and councillors – this is important…..
cc: Paul McLennan MSP paul.mclennan.msp@parliament.scot
Mairi McAllan MSP (for Net Zero and Energy) Mairi.McAllan.msp@parliament.scot
Craig Hoy MSP Craig.Hoy.msp@parliament.scot
Cc: Ward councillors for Haddington and Lammermuir, Dunbar and East Linton
jmcmillan@eastlothian.gov.uk gmcguire@eastlothian.gov.uk
nhampshire@eastlothian.gov.uk dcollins2@eastlothian.gov.uk
sakhtar@eastlothian.gov.uk
ljardine@eastlothian.gov.uk
Use as many or as few of the objections as you like, or devise your own email on the back of what you learnt on Wednesday.
Critically, please try and encourage your family and friends to do the same.
The number of objections received by the Energy Consents Unit (ECU) is highly important.
The sooner emails are received by the government the better Deadline is 18th April.
REMEMBER to put your FULL NAME AND ADDRESS at the end of the email, or it will not be counted. EACH member of the household can object with their unique email address.
For those of you who haven't already visited, we have a face book page. https://www.facebook.com/saveourskyline.scotland it would be great if you could visit and follow us. The full recording of last week's meeting is available for you to view there, in case you wanted to recall any of the facts and figures. We will also keep this updated with any progress on the application we are aware of over the coming months
Very many thanks for your support.
The LammermuirSOS team.
Some Reasons to Object to the Newlands Hill Application
Newlandshillwindenergyhub.com
ECU00004603
The Visual Impact of 17 turbines (up to 200 metres tall) along the crest of the Lammermuirs at Newlands Hill will dominate the East Lothian skyline and is inappropriate. These turbines are just short of the size of the Queensferry Crossing towers.
The light pollution of night skies is inappropriate, including a flicker effect from red lights fixed to each turbine’s apex.
The ‘B’ roads Belltown Power seek to use for the Abnormal Indivisible Loads (AIL) are not designed to take heavy vehicles. The single carriageway roads (south of Traprain Law) are not suitable for the long vehicles transporting the turbines and their blades. The 18.5 km route will suffer from no less than 35 swept paths between East Linton and Newlands Hill where surveyors have identified that hedges, walls and trees would be removed and roads widened.
Two newly constructed roads, one between Tanderlane and West Mains (1km) and the other between the B6370 at Baro and the Carfrae to Danskine road (2.5km) would be created for the abnormal loads. These stretches are currently hedged farm tracks, an old drovers road and a field edge.
The HGV route from East Linton south towards Stenton before joining the Hillfoots Trail is a busy B road and the huge increase in traffic will adversely affect business, recreation and tourism. Residents and all road users will be adversely affected by lorries, (up to 200 daily journeys during peak construction) site vehicles and other transport vehicles over the 18 months of construction.
The scoping of the Environmental Impact Assessement (EIA) does not cover the whole of the development. Critically, the EIA does not include connection of the wind farm to the national grid. This is an essential prerequisite for the planning application. Without which no development can proceed.
The development is contrary to the goals of the East Lothian Local Development Plan 2018, in relation to Special Landscape Areas (SLA’s).
The development makes no contribution to Net Zero targets as the local grid infrastructure hasn’t the capacity to utilise the extra power generated by the proposed wind farm or Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) and therefore does not fulfil the “Need” requirement.
Belltown Power have failed to use correct data in their carbon offset calculation. Examples being (a) turbine foundations with a 49% error in the figures used for calculation compared with the figure identified in the written foundation design.
The applicant does not identify sufficient biodiversity compensations within the development proposal particularly relating to wading birds and does not meet National Planning Framework 4 (NPF4) requirements. Proposed enhancements relating to unimproved grassland are also inappropriate.
The development adds further financial burden to the UK taxpayer because without further grid infrastructure investment, any additional wind generation capacity will only lead to increased constraint payments. (These are payments made to wind farm developers to turn OFF their turbines. Furthermore all current recognised grid infrastructure expansions which are either in scoping or seeking content, will not alleviate this issue.
The mitigation plan of the AIL route through the Danskine Loch SSSI is unresolved and NatureScot seek further detailed information from Belltown
Surely a balance needs to be addressed between the huge environmental damage caused in the construction of a wind farm set against the relatively small amount of ‘green’ energy produced. With a 4.1GW development proposed with 307 wind turbines at Berwick Bank and 54 being constructed currently off the Fife Coast, do we NEED these 17 turbines along our Skyline.
The whole dynamic of this currently unspoilt area of East Lothian would be changed for generations to come should this proposal go ahead.
Newlands Hill Wind Energy ‘Hub’ may suggest that it would become the centre for further applications! Thereby leading to long lasting hassle and inconvenience from traffic as is the case in East Lammermuir with Crystal Rig and Aikengall windfarm extensions.