YOUR VIEWS: SSEN powerline threat and 'clear plan' for A9 dualling
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Power plans put scenic woodland under threat
In the past week or so you have run two different items on Contin Woods – one on the amazing annual Strathpuffer mountain-biking event which attracts 800-plus entrants, and the other on the lovely walks people can enjoy in the woods. Contin woods are popular with walkers and cyclists year round.
Your readers might be interested to know, however, that the woods and surrounding areas, including beautiful Loch Kinellan, are currently under threat from SSEN’s proposed Spittal-Beauly 400Kv overhead power line. SSEN’s preferred route goes through the woods, and would mean the felling of huge numbers of trees to create 80m-wide pylon corridors as well as a network of temporary and permanent access tracks/roads. The pylons themselves would be 60m+ tall. Existing mountain biking and walking routes are likely to be seriously affected, and, more generally, who will want to go mountain-biking or walking in such a devastated landscape?
Contin Woods and Loch Kinellan are not the only local beauty spots under threat either. All down the east coast from Caithness to Beauly, and then heading east, our landscape, wildlife and cultural heritage are under threat from this massive project – and not to provide electricity for people in the Highlands but instead to fulfil the aim of the Scottish Government and Westminster to make Scotland the ‘Saudi Arabia of renewables’ and export energy to England and abroad. Who will actually want to buy this power when the target markets are already developing their own sources of renewable energy is an unanswered question.
We are in danger of blighting our beautiful countryside needlessly for generations to come.
If people value what we have up here and don’t want to see it wrecked, I urge them to write to their local councillors, MSPs and MPs and tell them.
Helen Smith
Strathpeffer
‘Clear plan for A9’
There will be no let up in completing A9 dualling, Scotland’s Transport Secretary vowed. In evidence to a Holyrood inquiry into the delayed project, Màiri McAllan says the government has restated its commitment to completing dualling with a clear plan.
“How can there be ‘no let up’ on something on which no progress is being made on in the first place?” – Charles Bannerman
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