Hay's Way: A walk through Wind farm alley in Dumfries and Galloway

The Scotsman

Wind Farm Alley

Transcript

00:00Hi, my name's Catherine. I'm the Rural Affairs Correspondent at the Scotsman. I'm currently

00:24on a walking trip around Scotland and I've got to a place which is locally known as Windfarm

00:32Alley which is between Newloose and Barr Hill in Dumfries and Galloway and I've just been

00:38walking up through the valley. I came across some local farmers in the area who were happy

00:45to share their view with me on their thoughts about the money that comes from the windfarm

00:51companies and just the visual impact and environmental impact of having these turbines

00:55on the land surrounding their homes. Do you all work on the land around here? Yes, in Newloose.

01:02And there's a community committee that organises the money that they get from the windfarm. They

01:11built and renovated a hotel in Newloose with windfarm money. What about as a farmer, do you

01:20take it that they obviously give you some money for using your land? No, we don't get any. There's

01:26none on our land but there's land owners round about, it's compensated and they get an annual

01:33rental. It'll be a percentage and if the tenants are on that land the landlord gets about 80% and

01:43the tenant gets about 20%, roughly anyway, between 20 and 30%. And you were saying earlier

01:50you don't mind the visual impact? No, I think they're just graceful and nice to see in the

01:56morning, to get a good direction from where the wind's coming from. It's getting us away from oil

02:01anyway. It's the future, I think, we just have to go with it, the wind power. I mean it's there

02:09and it's free. I think more than a fifth of Scotland's wind power is just in that valley,

02:18I mean do you feel it's a bit excessive, the amount? There's quite a lot of windmills. That's

02:23where they should be, there's no population up there, that's where they should be. They're out

02:28in the sea, that's it. We'll get very few protesters because we're so underpopulated

02:35and it's bringing money into the area too for coffees and various other things.

02:42Well maybe a wee bit overloaded with them. How long have you lived here?

02:48Fifty, sixty years. I think there was none then, none at all.

02:56Have you noticed the money coming in, has it helped the towns?

03:01Oh, not personally, no, but as far as these villages, all the villages are benefiting from

03:10them. I mean the buildings, they've helped to do up all buildings and stuff.

03:19Yeah, I saw the village square. Community hubs, things like that have benefited.

03:26So you're not too worried about them? No, not at all.

03:32I'm going to head to New Loose to talk to some residents there to hear their views on

03:50wind farms being put up in this part of the country. I think what makes it different to

03:56other areas, but similar to some as well, is just the number of wind farms and wind

04:01turbines in this area. There's probably, well someone said there's over 500 turbines in which

04:10is not of a huge area and there's at least three applications I think for more just at the moment.

04:18So yeah, I'm going to speak with some residents in New Loose which is just at the foot of this

04:24place called Wind Farm Alley.

04:27The village had the hotel as a sort of an asset and when the previous owners

04:55left the place shut down for basically four to five years. And with the wind farms that

05:05were surrounding the area there was a community benefit fund that was set up.

05:12A lot of the money comes from the SPR, Scottish Power Renewables, and it was through the community

05:21trust that they were able to access this money and then with their help and help from a couple

05:30of other funds we purchased the building and renovated it. Totally renovated it, it was

05:38stripped right back to being a bare stone shell and well now you see the results of the labours.

05:48It took about 18 months to do and we've got a beautiful building now which is well used.

05:56The New Loose Community Trust has been held up by Scottish Power Renewables as an excellent

06:06good practice of using community funds for the benefit of the community.

06:14And how much did it take to restore this building?

06:19I think all told it was about 1.1 million including purchase and renovation fees.

06:27But as you can see we've got a tremendous asset which will last for the next 200 years hopefully,

06:35long after I'm gone. And I have been asking everyone, I saw a model of this area

06:42in Newshamstow and just there's quite a lot of turbines already and I know that bigger ones are

06:48on their way. Does it worry you a little bit that it might be a bit excessive at any point? Because

06:53I know over a fifth of Scotland's I think turbines are just in this little bit. Again depending on

06:59who you speak to you'll get a different response. Some people don't mind them, other people say

07:06we've had enough. And I can understand that because as we come over the road from Castle

07:14Kennedy all you see in about a 270 degree arc is wind turbines. And I can see where

07:24it does impact on the visual look of the area. But there again you have to weigh up the pros

07:33and cons of it. It's a curse but it's also a blessing for communities. So you've just got to

07:41weigh up the two. You're actually surrounded by them. You start off, you look over towards Port

07:46Patrick, you start there, you come over here, you've got them up the back there towards where

07:52the dam is and Glenwillie and all that up there. Right across, right around the back on the southern

07:57upland way. You dug that up and removed it and then comes right across. So we're actually

08:05surrounded. About 500 I reckon. Easy. So do you feel as you said it was a bribe, a kind of community benefit?

08:13Yes, just so that the community doesn't go, you know, we don't want them, we've got

08:18enough. So there's a bit of an uprising over in the borders and places like that and

08:23further up country towards Dumfries where the plan of permission is getting refused now because

08:29the communities have just had enough of it. It's about looking at ways where we actually do get some

08:35sustained benefit out of it instead of the odd little bribe here and there, you know.

08:40How divided is the village do you think? Is it kind of 50-50? I think the agricultural side of the village

08:45that we see, the farming community that gets benefits out of it for having it on their land

08:50obviously think they're a wonderful thing. But like, you know, people like myself that doesn't

08:58have one in my garden, you know. I dare say if I was getting a good bit of money every year because

09:05it stuck to in my back garden, I might go, oh yeah, I can see the benefit of that. But, you know, as it

09:10is in the village we don't really get any benefit other than things we maybe don't want, you know.

09:16The thing is, I mean, it's like, you know, we've got the pub out of it and the community benefit, so that's

09:21great. It doesn't benefit me, but of course, then of course they didn't think it through. So we now

09:26got added parking in the street and everyone's at each other's throat now trying to get park because

09:31we've got people coming for meals and stay in the weekend and because you can't get park when you

09:36come home and it's like, oh, bloody pub.

09:46I just wanted to come and talk to people there who are, like, actually next to it. Does it bother you at all?

09:54Well, we are, it's the benefits probably outweigh the disadvantages for the actual farm because,

10:02you know, these sheds were all run down, but with the money that, with the money that, you know,

10:08the owner got. The income from them. And the income that he got, he was able to, you know, get new

10:13steading. And it has, it has benefited other ways. I mean, there's roads through the farm now, which

10:19makes it easier for accessing. It's, to start with, it was a bit strange, but after six or seven

10:28months you get used to it. But no, I think, I think because they give funding to the communities,

10:35which is probably a bit of a bribe really, it is good because, I mean, the wee community,

10:41they struggle to get anything. And it has opened, they've bought the pub and they've opened it up and

10:48the guy that's running it's a really good chef. Again, we get certain allowances for the community

10:54fund. We get a £200 heating allowance for everyone that's in the parish in Euless.

11:00And we get a taxi card every year, £140, £150 on it, which again, I mean, you're helping local

11:11taxis if you can, you know, if you're using it. So, I mean, there is, there is a lot of benefits.

11:19And apart from the, like the New Louth area, there's also Kilgallic.

11:25That's called Kilgallic Wind Farm. And there's KCBC, which is Kilgallic Community Benefit Fund,

11:32and it's, it oversees the whole, the whole of that, which is about £1.2 million, I think,

11:38£1.4 million. Is that a year? Yep. Right. And it's for all, any, any businesses in the local area

11:49outwith the core communities can apply, you know, for funding for it.

11:54And you see... I'm a director on it, and it's, you know, it's amazing the number of, you know...

11:58Small charities and stuff, you know, that is benefiting outwith the actual, that don't see

12:04the windmills, probably. So it is, it has been good. And the kind of ground it is here, you know,

12:11it's, you know, it's quite sparsely populated, so the people that are negatively affected,

12:16there's not too many of them, you know, compared to maybe other areas. But the thing I don't like

12:23is the shadow flicker. Just, we don't get it in the house very often, just very occasionally,

12:30and it's only early in the morning for a few seconds. It's not particularly nice, and I think

12:37there's a house further up that maybe gets bothered with it more. So that wouldn't be

12:42great. And sometimes they're quite noisy, but it's not a, it's not a bad noise, it's more like a whooshing sound.

12:49My experience walking through Windfarm Alley from Newloose to Barhill, yeah, the number of individual

13:14turbines has been very noticeable. There are a lot of clusters of these wind turbines

13:22all over. Everywhere you walk you can see them, so I can understand why people feel they're imposing.

13:31It's very beautiful, this valley, and there's a lot of bird life. You can hear oyster catcher,

13:38skylarks, it seems to be pretty alive with birds. So hopefully that means the birds are coping and

13:44living alongside them okay, rather than feeling pushed away. I understand some of them, some of

13:49the wind farms have been here for over 20 years now. It just does feel a little excessive that

13:58they've got, I think, another three proposed for the area. But again, I spoke to some farmers

14:07who live around in the hills, in the valley, and they

14:12weren't phased. And that includes farmers who aren't getting money from wind farms because

14:18they don't have any on their land, they're just simply around them. And other residents have said

14:24the benefits that the money is bringing them, which they wouldn't be getting otherwise, if it

14:30was, say, from the Scottish government, the benefits are outweighing the negatives.

14:37But talking to campaign group Hands Off Far Hills, who are fiercely fighting against the next

14:44proposals for some wind farms near Newton Stewart and near Galloway Forest Park, they have a lot of

14:54reasons and they've raised a lot of questions over just wind farms in general. Are they good for the

14:59land? Are there environmental implications? Is there a reason why we might be having more flooding

15:06because they're not great up on the hill for helping keep water up on the hill?

15:19There's a bull and I just heard a bit of a stampede. And anyway, luckily they're

15:26running in a different direction, but I honestly thought they were just coming for me.

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