Power connection in Gravir
The possibility of the SSE subsea cable landing in Gravir, is naturally very upsetting for the local residents, and were I one I would be up in arms too.
It raises all sorts of difficult political issues that could have been (should have been!) foreseen before we got to this stage.
Unfortunately, SSE seem to have powered ahead with the prospect of their windfarm in Pairc being foremost in their minds, rather than the approved Eishken development, or the possibly larger Eishken development that is still going through a PLI.
The next application that will have to come in is under s39 of the Electricity Act for the pylons to run between Gravir and the windfarms (unless the cables are undergrounded) and if you think that the battle over the turbines was fierce....
The Minister would have to approve any compulsory purchase wayleaves that SSE applied for, leaving the community with almost no input to the decision, unless the community benefit for the Paric windfarm can be extended to embrace the landfall location of the interconnector.
Of course, our MP and MSP promised to stop any windfarm development (later amended to 'any non-community') but now find that their Government have allowed the first development to take place and almost certainly will end up approving the compulsory wayleaves for SSE, as there are few grounds for refusal. And if the Eishken PLI finds in favour of the extended development.... Their overall lack of understanding of the proposals is, of course, why they are currently being silent on the issue.
In the meantime the Council are getting a kicking as being 'responsible' for the plans. Plus ca change.
Sitting on the sidelines and watching all this happening is both entertaining and frustrating, as I know that I could have ensured that it was all handled much better. However, I think it is going to get messier before it gets better, and I suspect that Gravir will have this hanging over the village until the other side of the Scottish Elections in 2011. That will be exactly the sort of 'planning blight' that Lingerbay suffered, and we all hoped never to see again.
Let me reiterate something I have said many, many times before: all of these planning decisions need to be taken promptly, whether they are for approval or rejection. Vacillation is not an option.
It raises all sorts of difficult political issues that could have been (should have been!) foreseen before we got to this stage.
Unfortunately, SSE seem to have powered ahead with the prospect of their windfarm in Pairc being foremost in their minds, rather than the approved Eishken development, or the possibly larger Eishken development that is still going through a PLI.
The next application that will have to come in is under s39 of the Electricity Act for the pylons to run between Gravir and the windfarms (unless the cables are undergrounded) and if you think that the battle over the turbines was fierce....
The Minister would have to approve any compulsory purchase wayleaves that SSE applied for, leaving the community with almost no input to the decision, unless the community benefit for the Paric windfarm can be extended to embrace the landfall location of the interconnector.
Of course, our MP and MSP promised to stop any windfarm development (later amended to 'any non-community') but now find that their Government have allowed the first development to take place and almost certainly will end up approving the compulsory wayleaves for SSE, as there are few grounds for refusal. And if the Eishken PLI finds in favour of the extended development.... Their overall lack of understanding of the proposals is, of course, why they are currently being silent on the issue.
In the meantime the Council are getting a kicking as being 'responsible' for the plans. Plus ca change.
Sitting on the sidelines and watching all this happening is both entertaining and frustrating, as I know that I could have ensured that it was all handled much better. However, I think it is going to get messier before it gets better, and I suspect that Gravir will have this hanging over the village until the other side of the Scottish Elections in 2011. That will be exactly the sort of 'planning blight' that Lingerbay suffered, and we all hoped never to see again.
Let me reiterate something I have said many, many times before: all of these planning decisions need to be taken promptly, whether they are for approval or rejection. Vacillation is not an option.
21 comments:
Seriously - can somebody explain to me why "community benefit" makes everything OK? I would like really like to hear your thinking Angus ....
Why are the ward elected councillors not shouting about this outrage? They seem to be in cahoots with the power companies and are not represnting us.
"Sitting on the sidelines and watching all this happening is both entertaining and frustrating, as I know that I could have ensured that it was all handled much better."
Can you explain ?
Angus you have been in favour of turbines and pylons blighting the landscape all along so why the 'puppy tears' over us in Pairc?
You can't have it both ways you know.
With councillors' pay now well over double the basic salary of the last shower, can we expect double the representation? Ho ho ho.
Anon 9:23: Firstly, I always believed that the proposal to use pylons for the Eishken development was much more problematic than the actual turbines, and I think this remains the case.
Based on the plans I saw (and they may be changing) I think they needed to go underground or face refusal. I would probably have voted against the pylons, even if that scuppered the entire plan.
(Remember, each application had to be judged on its own merits.)
Anon 7:43: SSE seem to be running their plans without any consultation, and I think they need to be made to understand that the application should be part of a process involving the community and the Council.
Anon 5:12: Community benefit doesn't make it all right, but it can mitigate disbenefits. In this instance SSE need to consider how they will achieve that. Which might include a complete new location for the cable coming ashore.
Unless I have missed something,I haven't seen any evidence of meaningful discussion of the impact on the community by the developers, and that mustn't be allowed to continue.
@5.36
One of the elected councillors told me that (s)he had taken a survey of the people in Pairc and other than a few just being fractious (I'm not quoting - can't quite remember the term (s)he used), the people were all for it. (Interesting that every single person I spoke to there was dead set against it.) To be strictly accurate I think this was in reference to the windfarm rather than the cable landing. People of Pairc, you are stuffed.
Angus could you elaborate on your answer to 7.43 - I don't think you've explained what's remotely entertaining about it, nor what you could have done about the shocking lack of responsibility displayed by our councillors, falling over themselves to grasp at any solution that seems to exempt them from making progress on anything. At all. Whatsoever.
aNON 12:24
Would that be the Councillor seen out at Eishken enjoying Oppenheims entertainment or who spoke up for him at the Public Inquiry? If so their canvassing was probably the members of the Pairc Trust and Erisort Trust who are in league with both Oppenheim and SSE.
I'm no fan of McLean's politics but to Anon 5:36 from Hebrides News Website and I believe the Gazette......
Local councillor Philip McLean said the scheme would be a "blight" on the beauty and natural environment and urged its relocation.
He said: "Here is yet another example of so called consultation in the Western Isles where the views of the local community are just not taken into account.
"It all seems so unnecessary when the cable route could instead easily be taken into and through the neighbouring and more remote Eishken Estate.
"The effect of the Gravir option on retaining and attracting people to live in and visit the area cannot be underestimated.”
Yeah but all the dominant faction in Pairc Trust care about is the monopoly money which they aim to be on the receiving end of. They don't give a stuff for the community who they can barely bring themselves to talk to, only their own ego's and the cash that they will get for the turbines on their common grazings. Of course some will also be tendering for local contracts!
This is the second year running that there's been unfilled vacancies on the Pairc Trust board - people are sick of the whole thing. However the incumbents will tell you it is because people are satisfied with the job they are doing.
The windfarm has destroyed the community, wrecked the buy-out, and crushed many people's hopes for the area. Gutting when Pairc is really on the up, with more and more young families moving in and lots of positive developments underway - most to be stuffed if the windfarm gets consent.
More and more people detest Pairc Trust, many are fearful or have no intention of living here once the windfarm and buy-out occur unless there is a big change. Not quite the big land reform dream, more like North Korea.
A great shame that the agencies and funding bodies, who pump in the tax-payers money for community development, don't bother to actually come into the community and see whether the money is delivering ....yippee a totalitarian state !
5:54
The cable could go into Eishkein, but that will cost a lot more money according to SSE. So they want to sacrifice us as they save money.
Simialr in the way that they want to sacrifice the elderly by putting up electricity prices by an extortonate amount.
This stuff is all about big bucks and companies lining their pockets at the expense of us - Joe Public. This has nothing to do with Climate change, Green energy, Renewables, Saving the Planet.
The sooner we all ackowledge that as a baseline the better.
anon 7.21 - yes that's a point that needs to be made more often - the green herring. I'm amazed at the number of semi-intelligent people who are still swithering over windfarms because "but after all they WILL save the planet...." A windfarm here is not a green solution - we're just another district of chumps that don't understand that.
The one aspect that might be mildly entertaining (not just for Angus) in all this mess is that, while developers everywhere clearly play off local divisions and confusions that abound in sparsely populated areas, Lewis is so addled that we are beyond effective manipulation. Though it will end in tears one way or the other.
anon 7.21. SSE are not a charity, they need to make money to survive. I wonder how many people in Lewis are shareholders?
anon 5.36. regarding councillors representing us, surely they should represent our best interests and not necessarily what the people want.
Jobs, money for the economy or neither? It's not a difficult decision to make, though I do think a nuclear power station in Ness would be great after the fuss they created. No doubt they would oppose that as well as any possible oil terminal. Who will decide who turns off the lights when everyone is gone?
Anon 2:16
Usual hysteria from the pro lobby
Jobs? - for itinerate workers living on the site spending little in the community. Do you really believe youngsters with steady jobs either in the local environment or on the mainland/off shore are going to give that all up for one or two years short term work on a moor!
Economy? - funds sent home to home lands. Small tourist business ruined knock on on Island business.
Turn off the lights? - have you seen the number of new houses being put up across the islands? The population after years of decline is actually on the increase because we have an undeveloped landscape which attracts Island living! More and more new BMWs Audi's and even huge American cars a sure sign of economic decline!
Toad of Toad Hall speak - doom and gloom - scare the natives we the local Lairds know what is best for you plebs.
Its the arrival of the wind farms, pylons and interconnector that will depopulate Lewis not the lack of them - never forget the arrival of sheep! (Another aledged benefit for Lewis at the time.)
That said I agree on a reactor - put it at Arnish and create hundreds of permanent jobs for scores of years. Of course certain local land owners, businessmen and self appointed trustees of dubious 'trusts' will get nothing. So no chance of that.
Cheer up these Islands are on the up with out renewables and even when shut on Sundays.
I can only presume you firstly do not live any where near Pairc or if you do are one of the limited few of the Kershader/Habost mafia who alone stand to gain from all this by standing at the end of their crofts with their hand out. Or secondly you like the Toad have a business interest that seeks to gain from wind farms and alike.
"possible oil terminal" - do tell!
"surely they should represent our best interests and not necessarily what the people want"
You are so wrong and wide of the mark. They are there to represent their electorate.
I suspect that you are Kremlin based to think that.
Point of fact is that SSE want to dump a 'converter station' on the moor outside Gravir. Looks innocuous enough on the plan until you scale it up. It will have a foot print of ~200m x 100m. So that's a facility probably larger than the Tesco in Stornoway. It will be a humming, buzzing, fizzing, giant Van de Graff Generator (O level physics - failed) which will blend in with the rest of the environment like an uplifting story in an episode of Eastenders. Mr Oppenheim has 'generously' volunteered his estate to be covered in wires and the associated gubbins, knowing full well that it's not going to happen and is not feasible. Some people have failed to realise this along with the fact he's not going to give away a few free turbines for the community. No one gives away money these days....except the tax payer.
PS'Payed'....Paid.
"surely they should represent our best interests and not necessarily what the people want"
...I echo the outrage. They should not (and could not) do to the letter what the people say individually (cf S1-S2), but they are there to deliver, as best they can, the kind of community, life and economy the people are, beyond the chatter, saying they want. (No I'm not holding my breath.) The idea that some of these councillators (sic) think they know what's best for us, regardless of our own opinions, is galling. If they were meant to be wiser and better informed than the rest of us, they would be appointed by a higher authority, not chosen via a beauty contest.
Re the exploitation: anyone who's read or seen The Cheviot the Stag and the Black Black Oil (7:84 play by John McGrath toured ca 1973), or even taken a cursory glance at Highland history, will know that we have been here before, again and again. So WHEN are we going to stop letting the Highlands and Islands be used as a "development opportunity" for the benefit of someone else (and a few local spivs) and to the detriment of our communities? WHEN? We deserve everything we get, for having such short memories.
And SSE should be a charity, or at least a CIC.
I accept SSE are a company and are answerable to shareholders. Fair cop. They are there to make money.
However they are steamrollering over everything and everyone in their path.
Also look at the next post about grid charges. This entire power set up is flawed as it is greased by taxpayer handouts. If it is so good it can stand on its own without the handouts. Fridays Scotsmans article states you need a degree to understand the pricing and economics of these things. that should not be teh case.
It should be clear, open, upfront and transparent. The more grey the process the less value for money attained. Perhaps that is why the term Stornoway Grey is now used!
Surely you cannot work out a grid till you know what is going to feed into it. If a grid goes in they will push for the Pairc windfarm. It is all very chicken and egg.
Following todays meeting with Jim Mather, it is illuminating to hear that the development option currently on the table for Pairc Estate is the one considered least favourable for the interests of the community, in the eyes of the Scottish Government.
However given that wider aspirations for Lewis, including circa 200 MW of community stake windfarms across north Lewis apparently depend on the Gravir interconnector and the developer is SSE, maybe it is no surprise that Minister Mather offered nothing other than a cop out.
Apparently future developments on north Lewis will have to demonstrate community support. Meanwhile down in Pairc the situation is very different. The estate is in private, not community ownership so it is irrelevant what the crofters and residents think, only the current landowner (Barry Lomas, an accountant from south east England) matters! Apparently when it was pointed out that Pairc community was pursuing a community buy-out under Pairc Trust, there were big smirks and giggles all around.
Anon 8:14
Can you expand on the comment on Pairc Trust? Many of us in South Lochs treat them with much suspision as they are wheeling and dealing with SSE and are mates of Oppenheim when it comes to giving away our land to energy companies.
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