Renewable energy park is rejected by Scottish Borders Council

Fred Olsen Renewables submitted an application to Scottish Ministers’ for consent to construct and operate Lees Hill Energy Park, on land south of Black Hill Wind Farm at Longformacus.

The proposal consists of up to six wind turbines which would be up to 200m in tip height, solar PV arrays and battery storage units, with generation capacity between 100 MW and 200 MW.

As the relevant planning authority Scottish Borders Council has been consulted over the application.

When members of the council’s Planning & Building Standards Committee met on Monday, March 31, they endorsed a recommendation from officers to object to the application.

Officers said the development represented a “significant and unacceptable adverse change to the existing landscape character of the area”.

A report states the plan would be detrimental to the Lammermuir Hills Special Landscape Area (SLA), particularly impacting on the scale, appreciation and character of the southern and central part of the SLA which contains the Dirrington Laws, Dirrington Great Law and Dirrington Little Law.

Councillor Eric Small, Conservative for Tweeddale West, said: “We have been asked to accept too many wind farms and I think this encroaches on the Lammermuir Hills, which is a beautiful area of the Scottish Borders, and I think this would be a blight on the skyline.”

Councillor Viv Thomson, SNP for Tweeddale West, agreed, adding: “The scale of what we are being asked to approve today is immense. It’s not just six 200m high turbines but we’ve also been asked about the solar array, battery storage, so it’s 69.3 hectares of solar panels.

“It’s massive and the impact that is going to have on the land is huge.”

The only voice in support of the application was Councillor Sandy Scott, Conservative for Jedburgh & District, but he accepted he was the “odd one out” on the matter.

A council report recommending objection of the scheme stated: “The applicant has failed to demonstrate that the indirect impacts of the development would not be significant and unacceptable on sites of national, regional and local archaeological significance within and surrounding the site, primarily pre-historic cairns.

“These adverse impacts are not outweighed by the significant weight placed on the contribution the proposed development would make towards renewable energy generation and greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets.”