Birds can live with wind turbines
Letter in Independent
Sir: Donald P McDonald (letter, 15 August) is quite right in thinking birds are capable of avoiding wind turbines.
My father runs a farm in New Zealand with over 100 wind turbines on it. This farm shares its boundary with a reserve, home to many birds, some of which are native to New Zealand and therefore closely monitored.
He has just assured me that he is not faced with scores of dead birds over the farm, and this wind farm has been there about 10 years and is in fact still growing. I think the readers of your paper are being fed very inaccurate information about turbines and it is a real pity. He has never had to reduce stock numbers, another myth thrown about by the anti-wind-farm lobby.
If a grumpy old redneck from New Zealand can live with huge turbines, 14 of which are right outside his bedroom window and do not keep him awake, then I think it very odd that some people in Britain are so backward on this issue.
APRIL-TUI BUCKLEY
LONDON SW6
Sir: Donald P McDonald (letter, 15 August) is quite right in thinking birds are capable of avoiding wind turbines.
My father runs a farm in New Zealand with over 100 wind turbines on it. This farm shares its boundary with a reserve, home to many birds, some of which are native to New Zealand and therefore closely monitored.
He has just assured me that he is not faced with scores of dead birds over the farm, and this wind farm has been there about 10 years and is in fact still growing. I think the readers of your paper are being fed very inaccurate information about turbines and it is a real pity. He has never had to reduce stock numbers, another myth thrown about by the anti-wind-farm lobby.
If a grumpy old redneck from New Zealand can live with huge turbines, 14 of which are right outside his bedroom window and do not keep him awake, then I think it very odd that some people in Britain are so backward on this issue.
APRIL-TUI BUCKLEY
LONDON SW6
13 comments:
One of the many amazing sites I enjoyed growing up on the island was watching large skeins of geese flying over the islands to winter in the UK. Often they would fly very low over the sea and land due to poor weather such as mist or fog. I have no doubt that if the wind farms go ahead there will be at least one incident with goose feathers and carcases strewn from the Butt to Rodel, but hey that’s another economic benefit!
Well maybe the people and their futures are more important than birds. How about the article on the BBC website yesterday showing that 41% of Islanders strongly supported the projects whilst 19% were ambivalent. I think that is a green light from the locals if ever I have heard one.
It does appear to run counter to other surveys undertaken but it is also a relatively small sample - less than 3% of the adult population. It would be interesting to find out what proportion of the population living in proximity to the proposals were for/against. Also, it is not a local survey taking into account solely the views living close to the proposals. Barra for example is around 90 miles from the proposed wind farms. The Western Isles may be a single administrative entity but it’s a bit like surveying people in the central belt on whether SSE should bulldoze a swathe of Caledonian Pine forest in the Highlands to build a wind farm - although, unlike the islands, I can imagine people being vociferously against that.
Having been telephone surveyed once myself, I know exactly what you mean about yes/no answers.
This imprecision should be built into the margin of error -- for everyone who wanted to say "yes, but", there should be someone who wanted to say "no, but".
How can anyone, in an environment and economy as fragile as the Western Isles put anything above the employment and security of local inhabitants? To enable us, our children and grandchildren to have a prosperous future up here rather than trying to work out how to purchase the one way ticket has to be our priority. The landscape is beautiful but if the only people that want to see it are up here for 2 weeks per year then we may as well give up now.
These islands need to be populated by people who live and work here NOT those who want to buy a cheap holiday home to inhabit for a holiday once or twice a year and the only wealth they give to the place is via the Co-op.
With regards to Arnish, if they had more surety of orders rather than having to wait around for the beaurocracy to make up it's mind then they would have a full order book.
Isn't it very telling that the majority of the negative letters in the Gazette are from people who don't even live here. I challenge any of them to quit their cushy jobs and move to the Western Isles to make their living, then maybe they might understand why the true locals want what is best for the Islands.
You've got lies, bad lies and statistics. If the questions in the poll were that badly phrased, it was meaningless. And how much is Lewis going to prosper if the Arnish Fabrication Yard won't be able to make the turbines? At current standings, it's about to go under.
In response to 'for the isles'.
You’re a bit too quick of the mark to judge. Just because someone disagrees with you it does not mean they are not ‘true’ locals, they merely have a different opinion to you and some probably are even more passionate about the islands than you. Actually, I'm from the islands as are my parents, blah, blah. However, I do think that any development in an area which is of international importance for its environment and birdlife is not a simple one-sided checklist.
I'm not against wind farms on Lewis or elsewhere on the islands, in fact I'm all for renewables (in the hopeless optimism that they do what they say on the box) but I am 100% against industrial scale wind farms on the peatlands – it should be appropriate to the scale of the natural environment on the islands not a simple “we need jobs, end off” arguement. I’ve read the arguments for and against wind farms in terms of the economics and supposed benefits to the environment and quite frankly, I don’t think anybody really knows whether they are entirely effective. The fact that wind farms only produce a fraction of their installed capacity and the enormous attenuation rates involved in transporting the leci off the islands are something ridiculous – leaving barely a drop of electricity to power a few light bulbs in London. Are the islander’s going to get free electricity from Amec – No, they’ll be paying the exorbitant leci bills like the rest of us. But the potential inefficiency, and real environmental impact is okay because it will give the islands some jobs – not an entirely rationale argument in my opinion but that’s my principles and they are no better or worse than anybody else’s. Worst of all, who knows what may eventually happen if the proposal goes ahead? The necessary infrastructure will be in place for a nuclear plant – Dounreay mark 2 anybody?
I think there are some massive flawed assumptions being made about the economic spin-offs in terms of jobs. Many of my class mates from the Nicolson left because they wanted to study and experience the world off the island. Why do you think that would be any different with the wind farm? Oh, but there will apparently be 100s of jobs from the community fund. Jobs doing what exactly? Plenty bums on seats but doing very little else - I imagine a lot of money will be spent on capital projects and assorted improvements, which is fine per se, but will still leave many people who would like to move back to Lewis out in the cold anyway. Maybe they can start huffing and puffing when the wind doesn’t blow to increase revenues. Also, what about the long-term viability of these jobs or will they simply be subsidised year-on-year from the funds? Probably. Yes, I'm being facetious because the economic arguments put forward by Amec just don’t win me over. And anyway, I think that preserving the environment is sometimes more important than jobs at times. Using the proposed Sound of Harris causeway to generate tidal power would be a much better idea in my humble opinion. I assume that the environmental impact would be less….but I could be wrong. I know the technology for such renewable infrastructure wasn’t as developed several years ago when the causeways to Eriskay etc were being built, but even then, it was a lost opportunity – typical of the Comhairle. And as for CamCal or whatever it’s called. Given that the management of that company has swallowed up two large junks of public money, I am beginning to doubt their competence in running a business even though there are 100s if not 1000s of wind turbines which have received planning consent....never mind the business they can get abroad. I have no doubt that many will find my views perverse but it’s just my opinion after all.
I find it so ironic that the Comhairle committee which took this decision has ‘sustainable’ in its title – there is nothing ‘sustainable’ about the Amec proposal – the sordid topic of coin is all that matters.
Night night….
Sorry, but you confuse licences which are issued under statute with voluntary agreements, the later are wholly enforceable as binding contracts.
The public will have the opportunity to see the full terms and conditions before they are agreed or amended by the Comhairle and to make their views known - probably in late November/December.
As landlords, Stornoway Trust were the one's (I think) who wanted no Sunday working at Arnish. I don't know what agreement they reached.
has anybody thought that people might just dislike Mr Nicolson and thats the reason why people are against windfarms???
I think you are the nasty ex-wife, and I claim my fiver.
then you would be wrong - more than one person dislikes Mr Nicolson
I don't want to appear to argue with myself :-) but the two previous anons who dislike Angus seem to hold a personal grudge -- the same person who posted malicious stuff previously? Murdo (formerly Anon who claimed a fiver)
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