Bowertower residents take up fight against wind turbine ‘monstrosities’
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Two wind turbines planned for a site in central Caithness have been branded “monstrosities” by nearby residents who have joined forces to form a protest group.
They say the proposed Swarclett Wind Farm will be within 800 metres of some properties in the Bowertower area and will have an unacceptable impact in terms of visual impact and noise.
“Proposals such as this should never see the light of day,” one resident declared, adding that the level of concern inflicted on Bowertower householders “seems inhuman”.
Renewable energy company Wind2 wants to build two turbines, each with a maximum blade-tip height of 149.9m, on land between Bower and Durran. A battery energy storage system is also part of the development.
Residents have set up a campaign called No to Swarclett with its own website and Facebook group which has 86 members. They claim support for the scheme is being targeted in Castletown, several miles away from the development site, through promises of community benefit.
Local resident Tony Shaw said: “They have no shame basically in recruiting people from a bigger place when in fact the people that are being affected are in fact in the smaller place, and that’s exactly the situation we’re in.
“I have a real fear that they’re basically concentrating on generating support in Castletown so they can claim ‘we’ve got so much support’.
“We’re a tiny community. There are 10 properties within 1500 metres, of which four are only about 800 metres away. There’s another five more off the Bowertower road, and that’s it.”
Another resident, Daniel Hopwood, said: “In our view, proposals such as this should never see the light of day. This is no major step on the road to net-zero – it is simply a commercial venture between a landowner and a wind farm company with the aim of making money for themselves.
“The concern and worry it has already inflicted on the residents of the Bowertower area seems inhuman.”
Wind2 is based in north-east Wales with staff in Scotland, including in Cromarty. The company held two public exhibitions last summer, followed by two more earlier this year – one in Bower and one in Castletown.
According to the company’s website, the wind farm will have a total installed capacity of around 20 megawatts if approved by Highland Council.
At a consultation session in Castletown in July 2023, Wind2 representatives said the project would create between 10 and 15 jobs during the construction phase of around 18 months.
Mr Shaw, who is retired after a career in IT, believes there are parallels with a four-turbine development that proved to be divisive when he lived near the village of Uplawmoor, south-west of Glasgow.
“One of our main concerns is that Wind2 appears to have deliberately set out to enlist the support of the Castletown community through a promise of community benefit,” Mr Shaw said. “They are miles from the installation and are barely affected.
“The support of Castletown for the proposal would in all likelihood damage forever the relations between the communities of Bower and Castletown. We know this from experience elsewhere, such as the outrageous tale of the Neilston Wind Farm in East Renfrewshire.
“The turbines were sited miles from Neilston, immediately overlooking the much smaller village of Uplawmoor. The parallels with our situation are striking.
“We’ve written to Castletown Community Council seeking its support in opposing the Swarclett Wind Farm proposal.
“We’ve also produced our own visualisation for Castletown, placing a turbine 1500m from the crossroads at the centre of the village. In that way Castletown residents can gain an impression of what we are facing.”
He added: “I suspect many residents won’t know where Swarclett is. It isn’t on modern maps. We had to go back to a map of 1885 to find the name on a map.”
Wind2’s planning application will be submitted to Highland Council by next month.
Project manager Hannah Brown said: “The Swarclett wind farm project aims to assist in achieving national renewable energy targets whilst carefully ensuring no significant impact to its setting. An environmental impact assessment has been conducted and will be available to view within the planning application documents to be submitted to Highland Council in May.
“We acknowledge the concerns from the local residents and appreciate their time in attending our public exhibitions held in both Bower and Castletown. Following receipt of the residents’ feedback from our first round of public exhibitions held in summer 2023, we have amended our community benefit and electricity contribution scheme proposals.
“The current proposal is to set up a Near Neighbours Electricity Contribution scheme for residents within 2km of each turbine. This would allow residents within the 2km boundary to claim £600 per property per annum to assist in covering their electricity bills, for the life of the project.
“There is an option to capitalise this payment to contribute towards the likes of solar panels or heat pump installation, if that was preferable.
“The remainder of the funds set aside for community benefit would be split between Bower and Castletown communities, as the project sits within each community council area. This is standard practice.”
