The Cabrach in Moray "besieged" by wind farms in fight to protect future
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A RURAL Moray community claims its future is being threatened by giant wind turbines.
The Cabrach, a remote glen near Dufftown, is home to 77 turbines across two wind farms.
They provide enough power for the equivalent of 133,000 homes - three times the number of homes in the entire Moray region.
According to two independent reports, the Cabrach is deemed to have reached a 'saturation point'.
However, a second wave of developments for two newly consented wind farms will go ahead.
That includes an additional seven turbines, which were approved on appeal despite Moray Council rejecting the proposal, alongside an additional 14 turbines which were approved by the Scottish Government following a public local inquiry.
Once complete, the Cabrach will be home to 98 turbines but there is also potential for a third wave of developments.
That consists of developments at Craig Watch Wind Farm and Clashindarroch Extension Wind Farm with are both at full application stage. Combined, the developments could see an additional 33 turbines built in the area.
Meanwhile, plans for a further development at the Dorenell Extension Wind Farm, which would be located at the only remaining wild land in the Cabrach, have been submitted to the Energy Consents Unit as a scoping application.
Each turbine will stand in excess of 200 metres in height.
And, if consented, the Cabrach would become home to the largest onshore wind array in the UK.
The Cabrach community is now reaching out for public and political support to prevent "untold harm" to one of the "most beautiful" areas in Scotland.
Patti Nelson, chair of the Cabrach Community Association, said: "The Cabrach faces an unfair, imbalanced situation whereby its community is besieged by an unparalleled concentration of onshore wind farm developments which is genuinely threatening the ability of individuals and families to live in the area."
She added: "The community, and our beautiful rural landscape, has made more than its fair share of a contribution towards net zero targets and any further turbine development risks our unique way of life here.
"There comes a point when we have to say enough is enough – our community cannot take anymore.
"Such scale of over provision is a step too far, it will destroy our rural land and community.
"We’ve reached what can only be described as a tipping point; beyond which irreversible damage will be done."
The Cabrach Trust, which was set up to safeguard the remote community and its cultural heritage, says concerns about wind farm developments in the area are longstanding.
The first wave of developments were met with "trepidation" but subsequent plans have caused "great concern".
Jonathan Christie, CEO of The Cabrach Trust, said: "The community is left feeling voiceless and powerless in the face of what can only be described as an unrelenting pattern of consents at any cost.
"To put it bluntly, if all third wave developments secure consent, the Cabrach unwittingly becomes the UK’s largest onshore wind park.
"In the process undermining an ambitious community regeneration strategy in its track, whilst bringing untold harm to an important river catchment and upland ecology."
Mr Christie adds that the community have "exhausted all avenues" as they look to prevent further developments.
He said: "Despite our best endeavours, there is no dialogue with the Energy Consent Unit nor acknowledgement of concerns.
"Moray Council, our local planning authority, feel impotent having had their own objections consistently dismissed over the past 20 years; and we are yet to establish meaningful dialogue with cabinet secretaries and ministers as we strive to impress upon the Scottish Government the incompatibility between such a scale of development and the long-term prosperity of a fragile rural community.
"There is an urgent requirement to apply the brakes, otherwise a community with the potential of becoming an exemplar for rural community regeneration in action, becomes the case study of what happens when policy goes wrong."
