Lewis Wind Farm

[Nemesis]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/highlands_and_islands/7208991.stm

 

[skier-hughes]

She said: "We are absolutely over the moon. We were opposed to this development from the start on the visual impact, on the damage to the landscape, the damage to the habitat, the damage to the moorland and also the danger there would be on the roads during construction

Visual impact!!!!!!!!

Isn't climate change going to damage the landscape, habitat and moorland?

 

[Nemesis]

Maybe there are places to build massive wind farms and places not to.

However:

Lewis Wind Farm 25/01/2008

The Lewis wind farm application is currently under consideration by Scottish Ministers. Due to a large amount of speculation about the progress of the application and when a decision will be announced, it is worth noting that no final decision has been taken and Ministers are working towards finalising and announcing a decision in the near future.

http://www.mwtlewis.org.uk/

 

[Flyfisher]

Deja vu . . . .

There may be other less damaging and intrusive means of saving the planet.

Yes, there may be. And I imagine that every other minority interest group on the planet is making the same representations to government regarding their own pet exceptions, tying its hands with discussion, debate, research, conferences, delays, more research, more debate . . . etc etc.

Again:

The Government believes that climate change is the greatest long-term challenge facing the
world today

I read 'greatest' as meaning more important than anything else. We can't have it all ways and it's a high-stakes gamble to try.

 

[Nemesis]

Maybe there is some point in protecting some precious places. That's possibly part of what saving the planet is about.

Argue amongst yourself.

 

[Flyfisher]

Maybe . . . . possibly . . . . argue amonst yourself . . . .

That's precisely my point. Too much talk and not enough action. Is climate change a threat to the planet or not? Er, well, yes, but let's not spoil the view over some remote moor that only the tiniest fraction of a percentage of the global population will ever see, never mind actually visit.

The 'trouble' with climate change is that it's too slow for anyone to take seriously. So people don't. So there will be no meaningful action until it's too late.

The politicians making this decision are thinking more about the impact of the next election on their own seats than the impact of climate change on their grandchildren.

 

[Nemesis]

The objectors aren't thinking about the next election though.

Anyhow, I have beer to drink. That's the most important thing on my agenda just now.

 

[biffvernon]

Well now, we could put all the new nukes in the Hebridees instead.

It really is about time people realised that my house, London and the homes a large proportion of the world's population are going to be under the sea if we don't start behaving differently.

 

[Nemesis]

We could demolish Durham Cathedral - top of a hill, nice windy spot for a wind farm...

 

[Flyfisher]

Looks like you'll have to move to the scottish highlands then Biff. At least the view won't be spoiled by wind farms :wink:

 

[Nemesis]

Aye, and we could all meet up in Embra for a bevvy Satata neets.

 

[bower1]

It seems to me ironic that the places which will possibly be least affected by sea level rises are the ones most suitable for wind farms (i.e. hills).

 

[chuckey]

One thing is sure the inhabitants who don't directly benefit and only have some disadvantage will bleat. The only local beneficery will be the one (?) farmer who can lease out his land. Score 5000 :1 against. The Highlands Council can see some income from this farm so they are in favour of it. I think in fifty years time all the addresses that have signed the petition against this farm should have to pay more for their electricity. Why should they benefit from a wind farm else where? Of course the wind farm firm could have (rightly) given them a discount on their electricity bills in return for the loss of their visual amenities.
Frank

 

[bower1]

I've thought for some time that you should get 'compensated' for living near all the things that everyone else doesn't want to (e.g. Power Stations, Landfill sites, motorways, prisons?).

The compensation could come in the form of a council tax discount. The amount of compensation would depend on distance from each unwanted thing, and what it was. Now, generally people have suggested this would be too hard to administer, but considering we now have the whole country in GIS databases, it must be possible.

That way, people locally would actually gain something long term for accepting these things.

I certainly don't accept that people on Lewis should 'suffer' for the greater good of people who generally don't give a sh*t about them, when, if everyone lived as they do, we might not have a problem.

 

[Nemesis]

Prior to Council Tax, there used to be rate rebates.

But I don't live near enough to some of the places where windfarms are proposed to benefit from any reductions - I simply feel that there are some places worth saving for the future, without being developed.

 

[skier-hughes]

If there is a future?

 

[Flyfisher]

I've thought for some time that you should get 'compensated' for living near all the things that everyone else doesn't want to (e.g. Power Stations, Landfill sites, motorways, prisons?).

The compensation could come in the form of a council tax discount.

Doesn't that sort of work already? If you live in a place where few people want to live - for whatever reason - the house prices will be lower and, therefore, the council tax.

Personally, I disagree with the whole concept of property tax because it has no real bearing on someone's ability to pay - but that's a whole other topic.

 

[bower1]

Doesn't that sort of work already? If you live in a place where few people want to live - for whatever reason - the house prices will be lower and, therefore, the council tax.

But that doesn't work for anything new, and is in fact another reason why people will oppose things, as it affects them financially.

Personally, I disagree with the whole concept of property tax because it has no real bearing on someone's ability to pay - but that's a whole other topic.

I don't disagree with that!

 

[Flyfisher]

But that doesn't work for anything new,

Ah yes, fair point, I was thinking about people who choose to move next to something. Chicken and egg confusion, methinks

 

[piper]

The only local beneficery will be the one (?) farmer who can lease out his land.

What few commentators who haven't actually been there don't realise is the mind-blowingly vast scale of this proposed wind-farm on Lewis. It really is of a scale totally out of all proportion with other schemes closer to the homes (and hearts?) of those of you who rather like looking at a nice feel-good, cuddly little green energy scheme out of your own windows. These Lewis turbines were (are?) going to be of absolutely massive size, hundreds of them, over most of the northern half of the island - which admittedly is not densly populated, though more people live there than many imagine. I agree it's a difficult question, and solutions to climate change shouldn't give way to protecting a few birds, or just preserving nice views, but the Lewis issue is about far more than that. Most intelligent local opposition to the scheme is not about any Nimbyish desire to keep a nice view (it's not actually particularly "nice") it's more about opposing the industrialisation of a whole landscape with millions of tons of cement, access roads etc. for centralised electricity generation via cables to the mainland. Many people on the islands who oppose the scheme as it stands, believe the investment should rather be in many smaller, local renewable energy generation, and also in off-shore turbines. Talk along the lines of "a few islanders don't matter, compared with the population of London" which I seem to remember we got last time this scheme was discussed here, are (with respect) slightly reminiscent of colonial attitudes to moving "natives" off their land to make way for "progress".