The other entry was a bit…. long! Sorry about that. We think it’s only fair to put all the information out there so people can make their own minds up. In short, what we are saying is… The Crystal Rig wind farm is growing bigger and the next stage, Crystal Rig 3, will add another 11 wind turbines to the 101 privately owned wind turbines on the East Lammermuir Plateau.
East Lothian Council Planning Department have experts saying that the landscape can’t take any more wind turbines in the area but East Lothian Council are thinking of adding 7, council owned wind turbines, to Crystal Rig 3. How can we have 18 more turbines when the landscape is full?
Well, if some wind turbines are locally owned then they are looked at differently than if they are privately owned. Nothing needs to change in the planning department but local people need to voice their opinion. If local people support the locally owned wind turbines then it helps the planning department decide on the “visual impact.”
“there will always be people who are against proposals, but when genuine community initiatives-which use a genuine community fund, offer genuine community payback and make a clear connection between the proposal and the wider community-send a clear message to decision makers that the development is welcome in the locale. That goes a long way to offsetting other issues to do with landscape, noise, flicker and so on.” Chris Norman – Head of Planning Scotland.
“ the purpose of landscape character assessment is not to prevent change but to illustrate what change will look like in order to allow elected decision makers and their electorate to decide whether or not they want it.” Andrew Thin – Chair of Scottish Natural Heritage
“Rather than looking at it and saying‘that big company dumped it here to make profit’, they look at it and say ‘that’s ours and I get some profit from it’ and as a result it turns out aesthetic perceptions are deeply subjective and you say ‘I rather like it’ rather than ‘I rather dislike it.’” Lord (Adair) Turner – Chairman of Committee on Climate Change
Dunbar Community Energy Company object to the Crystal Rig 3 wind farm extension as a privately owned wind farm. We will support a Crystal Rig 3 wind farm extension if 7 turbines are locally owned. I hope this clears things up.