Muthill farmer urges action before windfarm deadline date

Jan 22 2010 by Lynn Duke, Strathearn Herald

A MUTHILL farmer is urging Strathearn residents to get their objections in regarding the Standingfauld Windfarm before it’s too late.

Alan Finlayson believes that not enough people are aware that February 5 is the deadline date for comments to be submitted.

Mr Finlayson, whose farm will be 600 metres from the proposed turbines, is also vexed that he wasn’t notified of the original public meeting called by West Coast Energy to discuss the plans.

“It’s not as if they didn’t know we were there,” Mr Finlayson, who agreed to have the developer’s sound monitoring equipment on his land, told the Herald.

Posing a series of questions, the concerned resident asked: “As one who allowed a sound monitor station on my property why did I, or anyone else on this property, not receive an invitation to the public display by West Coast Energy in Muthill?

“Despite being closest to the turbines why was a letter even sent to a listed building address which has been demolished?”

The health implications are also an issue Mr Finlayson is keen to get answers on.

“Why have all the possible side effects been ignored - turbine flicker, destruction of habitat, loss of tourism, health problems?”

He thinks that the only reason for the windfarm is to do with landowner and developer subsidies, not greenenergy.

He went on to say: “The public will not get cheaper electricity, security of supply or a green solution.

“We’re not against windmills as such but these things are so huge. They are six times as large as the Muthill Tower.

“The turbines proposed are to be 100metres high, making them visible from Crieff, Muthill, Braco, Blackford and Auchterarder.”

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THERE was standing room only as over 60 people attended a protest meeting in Muthill last week organised by the Standingfauld Environmental Action Group (SEAG).

Many issues were discussed including the cumulative impact of the turbines on the landscape, ecology, transport, health, ornithology and archaeology.

And in an emotional address, a guest speaker described the debilitating symptoms he claims to endure as a sufferer of Wind Turbine Syndrome, a condition which has been identified in some parts of Europe and in the US as a valid reason for having a minimum distance of at least 1500 metres between turbines.