HIGHLAND POWER PLANS FEARS: Is Scottish Government turning a blind eye to proposed apocalyptic nightmare?
YOUR VIEWS: Concerns over substation plans near Beauly and recycling, while patient is praised.
Is Scottish Government turning a blind eye to proposed apocalyptic nightmare?
At some point this month, SSEN will be submitting its application to construct and operate a 72-acre substation in an 868-acre site three miles from beautiful Beauly. The site is a crofting community called Fanellan and, as far as research has shown, it will be the largest of its kind in the UK. Possibly Europe.
Those familiar with the area will be aware of the Balblair substation, just one mile from Beauly. Once a modest switching station for the hydro schemes, it has swiftly grown over the past decade into a 42-acre substation bursting at the seams of its 50-acre site. This substation is well known locally - and nationally, thanks to the press, for its disturbing ‘Beauly Buzz’, the noise abatements slapped on it by the Highland Council, and its constant security lighting illuminating once dark skies.
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SSEN’s Fanellan substation’s red line boundary for the 868-acre site contains 12 inhabited houses. Two are to be demolished and the residents displaced. A third is to be used by the multinational as an ‘office’, displacing a third family. There are 16 further houses just outside the red boundary line which SSEN carefully drew to appear to lessen the impact.
There are a substantial number of houses and businesses around 50m from the red line. Other than the two homes to be demolished and the one used as office space - all owned by Simon Fraser, aka Lord Lovat, who negotiated a deal with SSEN for the land, does not live near Fanellan, and will be compensated for his losses - no other tenants or home or business owners in the properties described above will be compensated, bought out, or re-homed at SSEN’s expense.
These residents will be expected to live within a major construction site, their houses unsellable, their children walking through it daily to and from school, every journey made to and from the site a navigation around heavy goods vehicles, mud, stone, and machinery. SSEN claims they will ‘reinstate the site’ once the substation is developed. But that doesn’t ring true when locals look at the expansion and environmental destruction at Balblair substation.
The footprint of this substation site is a similar size to that of Prestwick Airport. It is twice that of Hinkley Point C. From the start of the construction period there will be around 14 busloads of workers brought to the site daily and endless construction, equipment, and materials traffic travelling through the village of Kiltarlity and then onto single-track roads to Fanellan. All of this will increase over time.
Estimates given on the development time range from two years of excavation and levelling and another four to five years for construction. Thousands of trees will be felled, agricultural land churned over and filled with concrete and tarmac, animals and insects displaced or destroyed, watercourses polluted and destroyed.
And yet, not a single political representative has voiced an opinion - or opposition - to this development. There has been no mention of the health and safety concerns, the overuse of already deteriorating roads, diversions for many years that will increase fossil fuels emissions, the dangers walkers, horse riders and cyclists will face, including children walking home from the school bus drop off. There has been no mention of the electro magnetic field residents in and around the substation site will suffer because of the transformers and overhead lines in such close proximity. There is no other industry which would be permitted to develop in this manner, and yet our Scottish Government, so far, is turning a blind eye to this proposed apocalyptic nightmare.
Denise Davis, Co-founder of Communities B4 Power Companies
Our MP defends himself
In response to Peter Newman’s attack on me in last week’s paper, I believe he should have mentioned that he stood against me in the General Election for the Green Party, coming sixth and losing his deposit. Before the Greens, he was a Liberal Democrat member and just recently shown brandishing his new SNP membership card on social media.
His attacks on me were various; yes I am a landowner - I own 27 acres of land, does that make crofters landowners too?
Worried about SNP massive funding and dominance a decade ago, I gave money to Charles Kennedy’s campaign against Ian Blackford, supported Ruth Davidson and also responded positively to a request from Labour’s Alistair Darling. Knowing what we know now about SNP, (and the Greens) complete failure to deliver on health, education, the A9, Calmac etc, I do not regret these donations.
I do have a minority stake in Renewable Parts, which supplies oils, parts etc to wind farms, rather like Dingbro does to garages. Do wind farm developers decide where to put their turbines on the basis of where the grease comes from? I think not. I am proud to have helped a local Lochgilphead man start and build a business employing dozens in the Highlands.
Mr Newman aggressively pointed out that I hadn’t got behind the Highland Energy rebate bill. Graham Leadbitter MP’s proposal has not come near Westminster yet. As my Community Benefit proposal shows, my number one recommendation is for fuel vouchers to be given to households impacted by wind farms, so it seems that Mr Leadbitter and I are as one on this. I applaud that all the Highland politicians are campaigning together to secure a better energy deal for people living up here.
Community ownership and community benefits from all renewable projects are an essential fairness for us in the Highlands who host a significant percentage of Britain’s energy capacity. Essential too for the Westminster government to review the environmental tariffs on renewable electricity but not on fossil fuel gas, largely the reason electricity costs four times per kilowatt more than mains gas to the severe detriment of those living in rural areas.
Peter Newman is a Walter Mitty like man, dashing from political party to political party throwing out hand grenades of wrong or incomplete information in the hope of making mud stick. His belief that he contributes to serious political discourse is discredited by his pettiness.
Angus MacDonald, MP for Inverness, Skye and West Ross-shire
Could recycling be easier?
Over the weekend, I read a book review of a dispiriting newly released title Waste Wars: Dirty Deals, International Rivalries and the Scandalous Afterlife of Rubbish by Alexander Clapp about recycling and where waste really goes.
It made me consider two things: Where does our re-cycling in Inverness and the Highlands really go once it's been processed and sorted? How much of what we re-cycle in our bins actually is re-used for the UK?
Then on one further thought - Why is recycling so hard? For a start, there are different bins with a monthly collection each, meaning I have to diarise which bin goes out when, possibly like many readers.
Then there's glass recycling that can't be done at home. And if you don't have a car, then you're sort of scuppered, unless a helpful neighbour or friend offers to take it away for you. Finally, there's the soft plastic recycling that can't be done at home - instead, you traipse a large bag of flimsy plastic to a supermarket recycling bin in the hope it gets re-used rather than incinerated.
Does it really have to be so 'bitty' and complex to re-cycle effectively in the Highlands?
James Rorison, Inverness
Patient displays courage
I wish to reply to an article in the Inverness Courier (February 25, 2025): Patient needing urgent surgery 'left in limbo'.
I am a health professional at Raigmore Hospital. I am privileged to be involved in the care of Daniel [Rennie]. I like to applaud his courage to speak up.
Bernhard Wolf, Inverness
