![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.walkhighlands.co.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/Muaitheabhal-visualisation1.jpg\" "\\"Muaitheabhal")
Mock up of Muaitheabhal windfarm<\/p><\/div>The John Muir Trust (JMT), the UK's leading wild land conservation charity, is dismayed to see that another festive season has been used by the Scottish Government to bury bad news. The Trust notes that the announcement post-Christmas, of approval of the East extension to the Muaitheabhal wind farm in South Lewis potentially brings further destruction to one of the UK’s best wild land areas. <\/p>\n
Helen McDade, head of policy for the JMT, said, \u201cThis approval comes before a sod has been turned on the original site. If developers can come back after the whole planning process, including a Public Local Inquiry, and significantly change their plans before a sod is turned with no real scrutiny, it makes a mockery of the planning process.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere would seem to be worrying pointers about Scottish Government and planning policy that might be taken from this, alongside other planning approvals over the last months – including 59 turbines at Dorenell in Moray also festively approved, and the Beauly-Denny transmission line finally limping home with virtually no change from the scheme first lodged in 2006.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Scottish Government\u2019s record shows that it approves almost a hundred percent of large onshore wind developments, regardless of the level of evidence and concern on issues such as the impact on key natural environment areas including wild land, damage to peatlands, and level of public objection \u2013 shown by the 20,000 objections to Beauly-Denny, for instance.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is even the case, as with Muaitheabhal, where significant adverse effects to nationally designated sites are accepted by the government\u2019s own advisors. The Scottish Government Reporter for a Public Local Inquiry, examining a version of the Muaitheabhal scheme concluded, \u201cthat the wind farm would have significant adverse effects on scenic qualities for which the South Lewis, Harris and North Uist National Scenic Area was designated.\u201d There is no evidence that the redesigned scheme is an improvement as there has been no further examination in public and the visualisation commissioned by the John Muir Trust shows that this will still have a huge impact on areas within the National Scenic Area (NSA). Over thirty turbines, taller than the London Eye, will be visible for Bheinn Mhor, within the NSA.<\/p>\n
\u201cDevelopers are using the planning process as a game, where they get as much as they can in the first round, then come back and back again. Perhaps it is time to accept that there is little point to Public Local Inquiries into wind developments when no amount of evidence seems to alter the inevitable decision. Tens of thousands of Scottish citizens have spent hundreds of thousands of hours and pounds bringing forward good evidence to Inquiries. Sadly, the results do not suggest this is a fair and democratic process. It is essential that we get a national energy strategy which shows a coherent plan for industrial wind generation whilst having some regard for protecting our children\u2019s heritage.\u201d<\/p>\n
Due to the increased threat to wild land from development, the John Muir Trust is running a Wild Land Campaign, seeking a designation to protect the UK\u2019s best wild land. To find out more visit the JMT website<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The John Muir Trust (JMT), the UK's leading wild land conservation charity, is dismayed to see that another festive season has been used by the Scottish Government to bury bad news. The Trust notes that the announcement post-Christmas, of approval of the East extension to the Muaitheabhal wind farm in South Lewis potentially brings further destruction to one of the UK’s best wild land areas. Helen McDade, head of policy for the JMT, said, \u201cThis approval comes before a sod has been turned on the original site. If developers can come back after the whole planning process, including a Public…<\/span> <\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6057,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6055","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-conservation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.walkhighlands.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6055","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.walkhighlands.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.walkhighlands.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.walkhighlands.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.walkhighlands.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6055"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.walkhighlands.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6055\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23548,"href":"https:\/\/www.walkhighlands.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6055\/revisions\/23548"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.walkhighlands.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6057"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.walkhighlands.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6055"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.walkhighlands.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6055"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.walkhighlands.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6055"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}