Galson Trust
A comment on the blog suggests that the Galson Trust have abandoned their plans for a community windfarm, due to the costs and difficulty of transporting the turbines to the particular site.
I have no particular knowledge about the Galson Trust and their current intentions regarding renewable energy, but what I can comment on is the conditions that were applied to both the LWP and BMP planning applications.
In both cases, one of the pre-conditions was that a full roads survey be undertaken to give us the 'before' position, and that after building was completed and 'after' survey was undertaken, and the applicants would reinstate the roads to at least the 'before' standard.
That, of course, hid a multitude of other issues, but simply expressed the absolute basic condition that had to be met.
The vehicles that would have transported the planned turbine sections would have been 60m long, and need very solid edges to the roads to ensure that they do not tip over. They would have blocked the roads as they moved, and a traffic management plan had to be agreed with all and sundry before they could be moved.
In simple and practical terms major road reconstruction would have been necessary at places like the Manor roundabout and Laxdale Bridge, and entire sections of the roads would need to be replaced, for instance, between Leurbost and Balallan. All of these would be gifted to the Council by the developers, and would have to be delivered to the public in pristine condition at the end of the construction phase. This was part of the community benefit that could not be quantified.
I believe that Galson would have faced exactly the same demands, and clearly that would have been prohibitively expensive for a small community scheme, unless alternative landing sites can be found. But the vehicles to carry the tower still need to get to the unloading site.
This is one of the obvious knock-on disbenefits of the rejection of the LWP scheme.
(Update 9/6) Hebrides News have more information on the community plans.
I have no particular knowledge about the Galson Trust and their current intentions regarding renewable energy, but what I can comment on is the conditions that were applied to both the LWP and BMP planning applications.
In both cases, one of the pre-conditions was that a full roads survey be undertaken to give us the 'before' position, and that after building was completed and 'after' survey was undertaken, and the applicants would reinstate the roads to at least the 'before' standard.
That, of course, hid a multitude of other issues, but simply expressed the absolute basic condition that had to be met.
The vehicles that would have transported the planned turbine sections would have been 60m long, and need very solid edges to the roads to ensure that they do not tip over. They would have blocked the roads as they moved, and a traffic management plan had to be agreed with all and sundry before they could be moved.
In simple and practical terms major road reconstruction would have been necessary at places like the Manor roundabout and Laxdale Bridge, and entire sections of the roads would need to be replaced, for instance, between Leurbost and Balallan. All of these would be gifted to the Council by the developers, and would have to be delivered to the public in pristine condition at the end of the construction phase. This was part of the community benefit that could not be quantified.
I believe that Galson would have faced exactly the same demands, and clearly that would have been prohibitively expensive for a small community scheme, unless alternative landing sites can be found. But the vehicles to carry the tower still need to get to the unloading site.
This is one of the obvious knock-on disbenefits of the rejection of the LWP scheme.
(Update 9/6) Hebrides News have more information on the community plans.
16 comments:
If this is the case presumably turbines could not be delivered to Point, Tolsta or Harris either. We had might as well all give up.
Can they not be sectioned and craned round corners on the verticle. Surely these problems are not insurmountable. Drive a 4 lane highway through the golf course if that is what is required.
Sectioned - The 60m trailers were required for the LWP sections. I've no idea what size of trailer Galson would have required.
on the vertical - I'm no engineer, but how does the trailer get round the corner to receive the load from the crane?
Two trailers
The turbines got to Grimshader did they not, so nothing is impossible. However didnt they wreck the road there? I seem to remember that us as taxpayers had to foot the bill for those repairs.
With your update to Heb News I wonder can these be built at Arnish? Is it worth Arnish getting going for just three turbines?
Not sure how the golf course road would solve the issue either. You will still have to negotiate (sic) Manor Park. Laxdale bridge is surely the biggest obstacle. That has been debated in the past and it can't be fixed, or at least that is my belief. That is why we have the congestion there that we do with a traffic contra-flow and an old stone bridge so narrow it can only take one vehicle. The bridge is protected and with the buildings there you have no other viable route.
As always folk need to look at the bigger picture, not just their own wee pet project. So they submit and it gets approved. Then what? It can't be built and again the only winners are the consultants who shaft us all for cash! The island folk are the losers once again. Seems a typical island tale.
If it ain't birds it's bloody useless wee bridges. Dismantle the bugger and move it if neccessary. We can't go on stifling development for these trifling reasons.
The bridge will have to be rebuild to allow development to take place.
The point is that Galson will have to pay for this, and the cost of this might prevent the development taking place.
Stornoway calling Ness, Stornoway calling Ness - are you recieving? Is there anyone out there. Over.
Angus
Where did you get this misleading information from?
I attended a display in the Town Hall in March by all the community groups from the Western Isles who are developing their plans for community wind turbines in their own areas, each group had displays set up and all the information was there for all to see including the size of the towers, most of the tower sizes are about 50m high i understand the Lewis Wind Power turbines were going to be about 140m.
Message was clear to every corner of Lewis and Harris - embrace it all or nothing. Nothing was the choice.
The last post, if you'll forgive the irony, says it all.
Anon 2.17
LWP proposed turbines 90m - 140m is the max vertical height to wing tip
http://www.lewiswind.com/application/environment/index.php
Right, so the story is about Galson Trust, so why use a picture of a property on Eishken Estate?
The one that's used to accompany this blog entry is the Keeper's Cottage at Seaforth Head.
How often does the truth get bended?
The picture is captioned Seaforth Head, and was to illustrate the problems in getting turbines to Eishken!
So what is the problem in getting turbines to Eiskein?
Are we as tax payers going to have to foot the bill for this too, especially as there is just 13 turbines now?
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