Turbines or Tourism?

[WC1]

I can't help feeling this thread is beginning to generate more heat than light. For a start, the heavily aggressive tone of some posts is not helping. And I don't think anyone should be questioning the integrity of the administrators. They do an excellent job though I think they might maybe take a harder line on some of the more distasteful 'noms de plume' that have emerged.

It is perfectly valid for Mr Landrover to say that wind turbines won't stop him coming to Kintyre. Bravo! Whether he will still feel that when the landscape is over-run with them is another matter. And it's not exaggerating to say that we will be over-run. Given the growing number of applications for single, industrial-scale turbines and now three fairly large wind farms, two of which will be very close to villages and main roads, there will soon be no part of Kintyre in which turbines will not be a dominant feature of the landscape. It's counter-intuitive to think that this will not have a damaging impact on tourism, which depends on the attractiveness and unspoiled nature of the scenery as much as on the activities available. It may not stop tourists visiitng once, but I firmly believe it will deter them from coming back a second time.

Just for Sheik's benefit, Gigha does in fact emphasise my point. The three turbines there are not particularly intrusive in the landscape either as seen from the mainland, because of their size and distance, or on Gigha itself, as they're not visible from the parts of the island that tourists visit. I think it would be a different matter if they were up there 'in your face' as you got off the ferry. On the mainland of Kintyre, apart from Tangy, the wind farms are scarcely visible at all from the parts of the peninsula that are inhabited and which most tourists visit. If the current applications for single turbines and the three proposed wind farms are approved, that will cease to be the case.

Tourism is still not highly developed in Kintyre. We're still pretty much 'an undiscovered gem'. Allow the proliferation of wind turbines and we will cease to be a gem, and will continue - rightly - to be undiscovered.

[LANDROVER ROGER]

Excellent post WC1.Good overall view.

[north beachmore]

Well, I am glad that some sanity and normality has been injected into this thread by WC1. It seems to me that this topic is one that has caused some division, and quite rightly so. The point is to create a platform for debate so that we all can all leave a little more enlightened. Unfortunately in some quarters it has degenerated into nothing more than a slanging match between certain posters. Now that we are back on thread, then as quite rightly highlighted, the issue at hand is not one that is apparent right now but is one for our future. So far the planning authority has done a good job of limiting wind farms to the spine of Kintyre where the visual impact to our landscape is minimal (unless you go trekking over the spine!). Now we are faced with a completely different situation, one that personally I do not want to wait for the negative impact on tourism, property prices, landscape degeneration and un-reversible spoiling of our land and seascape to become a reality. This landscape is a national treasure and many people have invested highly within their own means to live here, or build here, or invest here. I do not intend to sit back and watch all that is beautiful be destroyed by a small group of developers intent on filling their pockets while trying to con and bribe us all with statements about 'community benefit' that are nothing but dangling carrots.
We have something unique here that we should fight to retain in its unspoilt grandeur. Or we give in to the corporate developers and allow them to decimate this land for their short term greedy goals...........
I know where I stand.

[bill]

Sheik my man,you know you are right, and I know you are right.

A quick check through the Machrihanish wind farm thread in reverse,and you find the only person consistent with his objections is WC1. Doff my cap. All the other protesters against the Machrihanish wind farm are nowhere to be seen on this thread.

Says it all really.

[north beachmore]

You know that it is possible that some people were either not in the area at the time of previous campaigns or were not aware of previous campaigns. Just because they are not shown on this forum making comment on a particular issue does not mean that they neither had an opinion or stance. Again this thread is being driven off-track in a scurrilous attempt to divert from the detail...
1/ Turbines may be the salvation of man.... But I doubt it
2/ This country we live in is being devastated by wind farms
3/ There is now a real effort by smaller opportunistic developers to take advantage of the single wind turbine
4/ There are three seriously concerning windfarm proposals on the table for Kintyre

The simple facts remain, wind energy is not going to solve anything. It will be a blight, almost a plague. Why build something (a) if you have to build something (b) to support it. Just build (b)

Anyway, back to turbines or tourism. This as yet unspoilt, still beautiful and majestic landscape can survive now. Lets look back in five years, I hope i won't be in the position to say "I told you so"

There are other ways. Unfortunately the Scottish Executive are hell bent on delivering unrealistic promises by the means of wind energy.

It wont work, it cant work. Do we want to lose all the unique attractions that Scotland offers because of short term misdirected policy? Oh! and short term unabridged greed!

Keep the visitors, the tourists, the incomers. Anyone that wants to preserve the natural landscape as is. It is the way it should be.................

[Bitter End]

From Todays Herald -----

Warm welcome for green energy investment :- Rog Wood ,Farming correspondent

THE Scottish Government's new £103 million investment fund announced on Thursday has real potential to drive renewable energy forward and to provide additional income streams for farmers and landowners in Scotland, says Savills Energy.
The Renewable Energy Investment Fund (REIF), which is in addition to the £200m over three years previously announced, will initially focus on supporting communities and rural businesses to develop local green energy schemes on their own land, as well as an array of other renewable projects.
Nick Green, head of Savills Energy in Scotland, said: "Scotland, with its entrepreneurial rural sector, wealth of wind and water and swathes of yet undeveloped land, is incredibly well placed to lead the way in green energy production.

"It is encouraging that the Scottish Government is providing financial support to enable Scottish farmers and landowners to play their vital part"
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

All purely government driven --- neither Alex Salmond nor his buddy David Cameron live on Kintyre and the population percentage vote is irrelevant to their office --- .

[mankind]

Well, I am glad that some sanity and normality has been injected into this thread by WC1. It seems to me that this topic is one that has caused some division, and quite rightly so. The point is to create a platform for debate so that we all can all leave a little more enlightened. Unfortunately in some quarters it has degenerated into nothing more than a slanging match between certain posters. Now that we are back on thread, then as quite rightly highlighted, the issue at hand is not one that is apparent right now but is one for our future. So far the planning authority has done a good job of limiting wind farms to the spine of Kintyre where the visual impact to our landscape is minimal (unless you go trekking over the spine!). Now we are faced with a completely different situation, one that personally I do not want to wait for the negative impact on tourism, property prices, landscape degeneration and un-reversible spoiling of our land and seascape to become a reality. This landscape is a national treasure and many people have invested highly within their own means to live here, or build here, or invest here. I do not intend to sit back and watch all that is beautiful be destroyed by a small group of developers intent on filling their pockets while trying to con and bribe us all with statements about 'community benefit' that are nothing but dangling carrots.
We have something unique here that we should fight to retain in its unspoilt grandeur. Or we give in to the corporate developers and allow them to decimate this land for their short term greedy goals...........
I know where I stand.

I stand very firmly behind you, north beachmore!!!!

[mankind]

Sheik my man,you know you are right, and I know you are right.

A quick check through the Machrihanish wind farm thread in reverse,and you find the only person consistent with his objections is WC1. Doff my cap. All the other protesters against the Machrihanish wind farm are nowhere to be seen on this thread.

Says it all really.

And I know you are both wrong!!! As someone has already said, just because we didn't join the forum on that occasion does not mean we did not object to the proposal. Only now, as it becomes almost daily more evident of the grave threat Kintyre is under from wind turbine developments, have we felt it opportune to join. Does your final sentence imply that the Machrihanish protesters are total NIMBYs, with no interest in the rest of Kintyre? I most certainly am severely concerned for Kintyre in its entirety and will do all that I can to preserve it as it is.

[argylltourist]

I have been doing some copious reading of the case for tourism being damaged by windfarms.

A survey, highly quoted, asked tourists in Argyll if windfarms stopped them from visiting.

That survey was done in 2001/2 when there were only the present two windfarms on the spine of Kintyre.

Of course the results said there was very little or no impact. But jump forward 10yrs and there is a UK wide

clamour of people objecting to the proliferation of turbines in tourist areas. These voices are not refered to by windfarm companies!

All you need to do is take a look around you, the landscape of Kintyre is unspoilt, there are not masses of tall buildings, electricity pylons or other man-made obstructions. There are restrictions on signage and many communties have no telegraph poles (underground). Tourism is going to become an increasingly important part of Kintyres economy....look at new hotels and ventures being introduced. We must keep windfarms in their proper place on the spine of Kintyre.

[bill]

Wind farms damage tourism ??


"There is no evidence to suggest this. The UK's first commercial wind farm at Delabole received 350,000 visitors in its first ten years of operation.

In a 2008 study for the Scottish Government, Economic Impacts of Wind Farms on Scottish Tourism, three quarters of tourists surveyed felt wind farms had a positive or neutral effect on the landscape. 97% said wind farms would have no impact on their decision to visit Scotland again.

A 2002 MORI poll which interviewed tourists at scenic locations around Scotland found 95% said the presence of wind farms in the area would make them more likely or no less likely to visit the area. Only 2% said it would make them less likely to visit. The poll also showed that 80% of tourists would be interested in visiting a wind farm."

[LANDROVER ROGER]

Does any one on here think,as I do,that the gentle movement of the blades is quite calm.If they were rotating like aeroplane propellors with the resultant noise,perhaps this would not be the case.

[ejb]

LANDROVER ROGER, can I just ask; since you appear to find windmills so pleasing, would you like a 100 metre high windmill in your back garden, so that you had no choice but to look at it and hear it all day every day instead of for just 2 weeks when you are on holiday?

[Ship called Dignity]

LANDROVER ROGER, can I just ask; since you appear to find windmills so pleasing, would you like a 100 metre high windmill in your back garden, so that you had no choice but to look at it and hear it all day every day instead of for just 2 weeks when you are on holiday?

Not really wanting to get drawn in to this discussion but I have to agree with ejb. And not specifically at Landrover Roger but while you may like wind turbines you have no concept of the impact it may have on certain communities throughout Kintyre.

I'm all for wind turbines but lets do it correctly. (right, time to get back to my fence! )

[howlsatthemoon]

would you like a 100 metre high windmill in your back garden, so that you had no choice but to look at it and hear it all day every day instead of for just 2 weeks when you are on holiday?

Who's back garden is it in? Who's house is near enough to hear it every day?

[ejb]

The proposed windmill at North Beachmore is FAR closer than the recommended distance from numerous houses and ridiculously close to 4.