Major power substation site's size horrifies Highland residents
Horrified anti-windfarm campaigners have hit out at a power giant after claiming plans for a substation near Kiltarlity will be much larger than originally proposed – something denied by the company.
Lyndsey Ward, of Communities B4 Power Companies (CB4PC), has demanded that Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks (SSEN) "ceases all planning applications until their conduct has been thoroughly investigated by the energy regulator and the Scottish Government" after claiming that the footprint of their proposed Fanellan site has increased more than 14-fold.
She says that residents in the area are "reeling" after receiving correspondence from the developer which she claims show the proposed substation will now be more than 860 acres in size – far in excess of the 60 acres mentioned less than a year ago.
And she added that the nature of planning notifications means that "only those folk in the immediate area were contacted about this monstrous industrial development that will affect so many more for miles around".
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She added: "For context the appalling noisy substation at Balblair is 42 acres – Fanellan will be over twenty times larger."
"Sixty acres was bad enough for a quiet peaceful crofting community but this is outrageous and SSEN’s lack of engagement with those so adversely is indefensible."
She added that people live and crops are grown within the red boundary line shown by SSEN's revised planning map.
"How does this happen? How does a company be allowed to become so powerful and so arrogant that they are allowed to drip feed devastating news to rural communities without demonstrating the need for any of it.
"SSEN are slicing up their plans with separate planning applications and will be submitting one piece of the puzzle at a time. It will confuse, stress and reduce the resources of those determined to protect their environment. It would appear to be a deliberate ploy to undermine the very communities who are suffering from their industrial onslaught."
She also called for a moratorium "into the industrialisation of Scotland by big energy ".
However, SSEN has strongly refuted suggestions that the substation had changed by anything close to what Ms Ward claims, explaining that the area marked in red is part of normal planning processes – a PAN boundary – and highlights the wider site and not the footprint of the final substation.
They claimed that "requirements for the site have not significantly changed" since what was previously proposed.
A spokesperson for the developer said: "We are aware of the concerns that have arisen following the recent submission of our Proposal of Application Notices (PAN) for the proposed Fanellan substation site and would like to reassure local residents that our designs and requirements for the site have not significantly changed from what has been shown to date.
“As well as the actual substation site footprint, the PAN boundary has to include all other potential site requirements, including any temporary site compounds, temporary and permanent drainage, site access and on-site parking, laydown and storage areas for materials and excavated soils, as well as landscaping proposals.
“Many of these requirements will be temporary, during the construction phase, and will be permanently removed upon completion of the project. The PAN boundary, therefore, does not represent the permanent footprint of the substation itself but indicates the full development area.
“The design for the site at Fanellan is still being developed with a key focus on minimising temporary construction and permanent operational impacts on nearby residents as well as minimising and mitigating visual impacts through the development of landscape bunds.
“We are committed to ongoing consultation with the local community and statutory pre-application consultation events will take place in Kiltarlity and Beauly in March where residents will have the opportunity to discuss our plans further.”
