YOUR VIEWS: Highland powerline plans and transport links for Inverness
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Readers on controversial pylon plans and the idea of a permanent Inverness Express.
Time to rein in plans
As SSEN roll out their horrific concrete and steel road show, from north to south and east to west, shell-shocked communities right across the Highlands are left reeling from the devastation SSEN want to unleash upon them with super size pylon lines and massive substations of 60+ acres.
For some the shock that their homes could be forcibly bought out and bulldozed; woodlands and farmland industrialised as compulsory purchase orders are threatened has caused immeasurable stress among rural folk. While once your home was considered your sanctuary it seems now that a multinational, answerable to its shareholders and apparently backed by your elected representatives, is given carte blanch to not only speculate in your community but ride roughshod over your life too and you will pay for it on your energy bills. It is utterly unforgivable that huge swathes of our Highlands, not SSEN’s or the Scottish government’s Highlands, is going to be used as a cash cow for the wind industry because make no mistake this is what SSEN’s new transmission lines are for. Their majority shareholder, SSE, highly successful wind developer and recipient of millions in constraints to switch unwanted power from their turbines off, must be delighted that they will be given further opportunities to spear 200m wind turbines through some of our most precious landscapes and habitats for profit. This industrialisation cannot be allowed to continue seemingly unabated. The paying public is entitled to full details of the UK wide grid plan, costs of current plans and alternatives discarded. We should also be given analysis and predictions of what is expected in the future because, when asked at a public meeting, SSEN were unable to confirm if this round would be the last we would be facing.
When will our elected representatives, including Ian Blackford MP, rein in their so-called ‘colleagues’ at SSEN?
Lyndsey Ward
Communities B4 Power Companies
Beauly
Improving city transport
Courier columnist Nicky Marr asked, with a special “Inverness Express” train to take Caley Thistle fans to the Scottish Cup Final, why transport links can’t be improved more generally.
“All public transport should be free at the point of contact, with an increase in council tax to cover the cost and if people want to drive after that they are taxing themselves.” – Martin Allan
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