{"id":9994,"date":"2013-12-12T03:16:41","date_gmt":"2013-12-12T03:16:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.walkhighlands.co.uk\/news\/?p=9994"},"modified":"2013-12-11T11:18:34","modified_gmt":"2013-12-11T11:18:34","slug":"wind-farm-threatens-cairngorms-national-park-says-mcofs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.walkhighlands.co.uk\/news\/wind-farm-threatens-cairngorms-national-park-says-mcofs\/","title":{"rendered":"Wind farm threatens Cairngorms National Park says MCofS"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"turbine\"<\/a>Plans to create a wind farm on the edge of the Cairngorms National Park are being opposed by the Mountaineering Council of Scotland (MCofS).<\/p>\n

The Nathro Hill wind farm, proposed for a site near Brechin, would be the largest wind farm in Angus and would affect views into the national park and from it.<\/p>\n

The developers had welcomed announcements that both the Ministry of Defence and RSPB Scotland had withdrawn their objections following assurances, but an addendum to the plan has not addressed the MCofS objections. The MCofS objection was lodged on the grounds that the proposed development of 17 turbines of 143m blade-tip height would have a significant adverse visual impact on the landscape setting of the Cairngorms National Park and the Deeside Area of Landscape Significance.<\/p>\n

Restating that objection this week, MCofS Chief Officer David Gibson said: \u201cWe do not regard the addendum to the plan as overcoming our objection.<\/p>\n

\u201cTurbines of the size proposed \u2013 with a string-like layout following a high ridge \u2013 would significantly detrimentally impact upon the sense of space that is intrinsic to residents\u2019, mountaineers’ and other visitors\u2019 experience of the eastern Grampian plateaux and summits.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added that the sense of space enjoyed from Munros such as Lochnagar<\/a>, Dreish<\/a> and Mount Keen<\/a>, and the closer Corbett of Ben Tirran<\/a>, would be diminished by the \u201cvertical punctuation\u201d of the turbines.<\/p>\n

The MCofS objection to the plans states that the proposed development would, if approved, be entirely contradictory to the \u201clocal landscape character and pattern of development\u201d. The visual impact would be significant and entirely detrimental to the setting of the National Park because of the number of turbines that would be clearly visible from viewpoints. The Deeside Area of Landscape Significance (ALS) would be seriously affected by the proposal, and the MCofS considers that the adverse impact on this ALS would be sufficient in itself to justify refusal of the proposal. <\/p>\n

Scottish ministers are due to decide next year whether or not the project can go ahead.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Plans to create a wind farm on the edge of the Cairngorms National Park are being opposed by the Mountaineering Council of Scotland (MCofS). The Nathro Hill wind farm, proposed for a site near Brechin, would be the largest wind farm in Angus and would affect views into the national park and from it. The developers had welcomed announcements that both the Ministry of Defence and RSPB Scotland had withdrawn their objections following assurances, but an addendum to the plan has not addressed the MCofS objections. The MCofS objection was lodged on the grounds that the proposed development of 17…<\/span> <\/p>\n

Read more ›<\/div>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6647,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9994","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-access-issues","category-walking-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.walkhighlands.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9994","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=9994"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.walkhighlands.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9994\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9995,"href":"https:\/\/www.walkhighlands.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9994\/revisions\/9995"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.walkhighlands.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6647"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.walkhighlands.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9994"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.walkhighlands.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9994"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.walkhighlands.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9994"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}