Moray Council approves four wind turbines at Caird Wood near Keith
Councillors have granted permission to clear an area of woodland the size of 26 football pitches to build four wind turbines.
The plans, at Caird Wood near Keith, were unanimously approved at a meeting of the Planning and Regulatory Services Committee today.
However, the meeting also heard that developer Green Cat Renewables will have to compensate for the cleared woodland by planting up the same amount of woodland elsewhere.
Three of the approved turbines will be up to 180 metres tall, with one measuring up to 150 metres.
Plans also include hard-standing areas for each turbine, with access tracks, an electrical substation and buried cables.
The meeting heard that the turbines would generate up to 16.8 megawatts of renewable energy over 40 years.
A total of three objections were received, including two from local residents raising concerns including traffic impacts, amenity, tree removal and grid connection.
However, councillors were told to “disregard” an objection from the neighbouring Edintore Windfarm, which was received the day before the meeting.
Monitoring officer Aileen Scott told the committee that the objection “doesn’t raise any more issues” than addressed in the meeting report.
“The objector clearly doesn’t agree with the interpretation of how they’ve been addressed, but they have been addressed,” Ms Scott added.
“And in the circumstances I’d ask members to disregard the paper that was received.”
The application was originally received on Monday, April 15, 2024, but the meeting heard that the delay was down to lengthy negotiations with the Ministry of Defence.
Principal planning officer Richard Smith confirmed that the delay to the application came due to talks between the MoD and Green Cat Renewables, over how possible impact on radar systems would be mitigated.
“It was for this reason that this application has taken quite a while to get to this point, because they've taken that long to actually come up with some sort of agreed mitigation solution in principle,” he added.
“We've now reached a point where the MoD are satisfied, and this is why they've recommended these conditions basically.”
The meeting also agreed to change the conditions to state that the replacement woodland should not be planted on prime agricultural land, along with an “aspiration” that the planting should be public access where possible and be made up of 50 per cent native broadleaves.