KYQ4: Shelloch Burn Wind Farm, Campsies

Looking over the Campsies we can see the tips of several wind turbines rotating slowly. The Earlesburn wind farm has been operating since 2007 with 15 original turbines and a further 9 to the west at Kingsburn. They have been a successful installation not least because of the partnership with the local Community of Fintry, which, through the Fintry Development Trust that has the ownership of a turbine, provides a funding stream that has been used with imagination to fund energy efficiency measures, children's play provision and funding for subsidising transport. These initiatives are part of the community's objective to become carbon neutral.

A new application was submitted for a further five turbines to replace eight that already had been granted planning permission. The applicant claims that the five new turbines will not be visible to the nearest village, Kippen, but I suspected that they probably will be from Thornhill. We decided to take a walk to the Moor where the Shelloch Burn runs and which will be the site for these turbines. The Glinns Road runs alongside the Boquan Burn from the A811 before the Kippen roundabout and climbs steadily below the Campsies on its way to Fintry. I dropped Aileen at the start of the track at Ballochleam leading to the Campsies and parked a mile north at the nearest space on the narrow road.

It was cool and breezy as we set out, it is a steady incline at first but ramps up after a gate by a lone pine tree for the final kilometre towards the Spout of Ballochleam. I had plotted the position of the proposed turbines on an OS map, they were located on the moorland to the south of the Spout where the Shelloch Burn flows in a north-easterly direction. My initial impressionion had been that the turbines would be hidden by Lees Hill, which at 411 metres is up to 100 metres higher than the moorland where the five new turbines are to be positioned.

Closer examination of the application by Force 9 Energy, shows that three of the new turbines would be 180 metres high and the other two turbines 149.5 metres high. The applicants state that by increasing the height and length of the blades there will be 83% more electricity generated than by the eight turbines that previously had been granted permission. Although the developers have not produced a visualisation of the turbines from Thornhill, it is the only village apart from the Port of Menteith from where the turbines will be visible, an intrusive presence overlooking Flanders Moss. The extra height of the proposed turbines will also make them visible from Thornhill over Lees Hill. In itself, this is not a major issue but one that should be examined in considering the application.

The access route for the construction of the new wind farm is via the narrow road from Arnprior. A new track that starts from the Glinns Road will follow the Boqhan Burn to the Spout of Ballochleam through a splendid unspoilt landscape. Whilst the proposals by Force 9 Energy are well presented and the arguments in favour of the development are cogently argued, it is these two issues: the size of the turbines and the access route for construction that give the most concern.

Force 9 Energy have offered local communities the chance to invest in up to 10% of the development and to receive an annual income stream. It appears to be a positive support of local communities and Gargunnock and Kippen both seem to have been given additional funding despite neither of them having the turbines in the line of vision. However, few communities have more than a few £'000 to invest so the prospect of them investing in the scheme is limited unless this could be offset against a future income stream such as negotiated by Fintry for the Earlsburn wind farm. The application will be submitted late this year and it would be worth discussing with the developers if more appropriate community benefits could be negotiated..