Highland councillor says scaled-down Banniskirk scheme could be way forward
A Highland councillor has advised those opposing the Banniskirk Hub scheme that a scaled-down development may be the best they can hope for.
Councillor Andrew Jarvie, who represents Wick and East Caithness, was commenting after two speakers addressed an extraordinary general meeting of Halkirk District Community Council on the proposed Banniskirk Hub electricity substation and other energy projects.
Kathrin Haltiner, who runs the Highland Renewables Database website, maintained that SSEN Transmission’s Banniskirk Hub is “out of proportion for Caithness”. She pointed out that the planning application will go to Highland Council.
Councillor Andrew Jarvie, who represents Wick and East Caithness on the local authority, said: “Yes, this one is being initially determined by Highland Council and not the [Scottish Government] Energy Consents Unit, which is the usual route.
“But you still run into the issue that even if the Highland Council were to refuse it, it would go straight to the [public inquiry] reporter on an appeal.
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“I think it would be a better all-round outcome to unfortunately accept the principle that a substation of some scale is going to be there, and focusing the efforts on what is actually needed… Maybe trying to scale it down in size and putting the effort into a better plan throughout.
“I’ve never seen one of these refused. It doesn’t matter how long it takes – as soon as they say ‘we want a substation here’, it happens. No-one has ever won.
“It’s maybe not the answer that some people would have wanted to hear, but that’s just me speaking from my experience in seeing this happen several times.
“It’s not the best option. I would say it’s the least worst option.”
Councillor Karl Rosie (Thurso and Northwest Caithness) described it as a “hugely complex topic” and felt it was important to look for solutions.
“Kathrin made the point that England may not be interested [in receiving additional capacity], but they absolutely are interested and that’s part of the problem. That’s why the infrastructure is required, if you study it closely.”
Scotland’s climate change legislation sets a target date for net-zero emissions of greenhouse gases by 2045.
Councillor Rosie said: “If there was a member of government here to defend this, they would say that their targets are. That’s what their response would be.
“I’m not defending that – that’s the reality.”
Ms Haltiner responded: “But we’ve already reached them. Even if England is interested in our electricity, we already have the export infrastructure in place for Caithness. We have already done what we can up here.
“We really don’t need another substation up here and we really don’t need any more development. We have already provided more than enough and we can export it from Caithness down south.”
She added: “They just don’t care about rural Scotland. They don’t care about the far, far north.
“We’re the very last ones they look at and they have no idea what is happening up here.”
Four other Highland councillors attended the meeting in Halkirk’s Ross Institute. They were Ron Gunn, Struan Mackie and Matthew Reiss (all Thurso and Northwest Caithness) along with Jan McEwan (Wick and East Caithness).
The other speaker, Edith Budge, said afterwards: “We are extremely disappointed that Councillor Raymond Bremner could not give up his time to attend this meeting when all of the other councillors could find the time to attend and listen to our concerns – yet Councillor Bremner can make the time to meet developers and open a hub for SSEN.
“We appreciate that Councillor Willie Mackay had a genuine reason for declining.”