Caithness community councils join Highland-wide call for pause on major infrastructure developments
Community councils from across Caithness added their voice to a growing Highland-wide call for change at the weekend, contributing to a major gathering in Beauly to highlight concerns over the scale and pace of energy infrastructure developments.
The event, held on Saturday at Phipps Hall, brought together representatives from 53 community councils, in person and online, in what is believed to be the largest such gathering of Highland communities to date.
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Discussions focused on windfarms, battery storage schemes, substations and transmission lines being proposed across rural areas, and the widespread frustration at how these are being handled by developers and national planners.
Despite the long journey, members of Halkirk & District Community Council attended the event in person, while representatives from Dunnet & Canisbay and Dunbeath took part via video link.
Their involvement, organisers said, underscored how far-reaching the issue has become – affecting communities from Caithness to Skye.
Speaking remotely, Mark Gibson of Dunnet & Canisbay Community Council said his group had faced a wave of complex applications with little support or clear long-term strategy.
“We are a small group of volunteers,” he said. “Reading through hundred-page documents and engaging with multiple developers in a single year is simply beyond our capacity.”
He added: “There seems to be no one single energy strategy, just a year-by-year, scheme-by-scheme advancement with very little benefit showing for the local communities.
“We pay the highest prices in the UK for electricity, and that annoys many of our constituents when the energy is being generated or stored almost in their backyard.”
Stuart Mills of Halkirk & District Community Council, speaking in person, outlined the sheer volume of developments now affecting the area.
“Caithness, and especially the Halkirk area, is under siege from energy projects,” he said. “We must remind ourselves these are business ventures designed to make a profit.”
He listed concerns including cumulative noise, red-light pollution, “poor” planning applications, and the pressure placed on rural roads and emergency services.
“Immediate action is needed to address the totality of all the developments and their supporting infrastructure,” he said.
The convention concluded with a unanimous show of hands calling for a national planning inquiry and an immediate pause on major energy applications until their cumulative impact can be fully assessed.