Chamber and committees

Keith and Margaret Mycock submission of 26 July 2021

PE1864/FFFF - Increase the ability of communities to influence planning decisions for onshore windfarms

My wife and I moved to Dumfries and Galloway in 2005. We loved everything about the people, environment, landscape and culture. We both worked and supported the community and believe we were a valuable part of that community. Unfortunately, things started to change after about 5 years when applications for wind farms started to proliferate in every direction. It became clear that the Scottish Government had set its mind on the complete devastation of its natural environment and iconic landscapes.

I, in particular, started to acquaint myself with the technology of wind and the provision of energy and along with many others started to examine planning applications which were coming in from every direction, some from major companies and others from start-up organisations wishing to jump on the bandwagon provided by the Scottish Government.

Each application ran into hundreds of pages with facts and figures that needed scrutiny and many hours to evaluate, not something for the average householder to understand or comment on. I, along with others, became more proficient at understanding the supposedly independent reports supporting the applications. These sometimes produced clear falsehoods, in one case an applicant had submitted an environmental report for a river effected by a proposed wind farm which was the wrong river which was over 100 miles away. Luckily this falsehood was picked up by local anglers and an actual report had to be commissioned.

For a further 5 years myself and others committed ourselves to trying to put forward the views of local residents effected by these increasing assaults on their natural environment. Unfortunately, it became clear that the Scottish Government were determined to ignore the natural heritage of Scotland in the mistaken belief that wind farms would bring prosperity.

The final realisation that the whole of the north of Dumfries and Galloway was to be sacrificed to the developers resulted in our reluctant decision to move away from the place we had called home for 10 years. It is for the reasons above that we fully support Aileen Jacksons petition.