YOUR VIEWS: Bowertower residents create their own turbine visualisation
Spoiler alert – the view from Bowertower could look like this
In last week’s Caithness Courier, the Swarclett Wind Farm developer Wind2 claimed that the two giant 150m turbines planned for installation around 800m away from some Bowertower residents will have “minimum impact”. Surely not even the most ardent net-zero zealot would make such a claim unless they thought they were dealing with fools?
It was no surprise then that the image accompanying the article did not present the view as would be seen by the residents of Bowertower. During the public consultation period referred to in the article, three times we requested a visualisation from the approach along the Bowertower road – the view residents would see as they drive homewards.
We never did get this most obvious of required visualisations. We did get an excuse of, “Our consultants are still processing the full set of visualisations after photography was taken from agreed viewpoints earlier this summer. There is a lot of processing and hours required to create these visualisations using specialist software, so we are not yet in receipt of the full set.” So we created our own visualisation and that is what you see here.
In preparing our visualisation we went to a lot of trouble to ensure that we could not be accused of mere invention. Our starting point was to take one of Wind2’s visualisations – the one on their homepage. We then replicated the scale and distance from the turbines from an equivalent viewpoint (distance) on the Bowertower road. This involved some processing of images and careful attention to map detail. Adjustment was made for the base of one turbine being below the horizon. We made one “corrective” action – our turbines were coloured very light grey rather than the blue-grey used by Wind2. We’d certainly not seen turbines of that blue-grey colour and, as the National Grid states, “Wind turbines do tend to be either white or very pale grey.”
You can read more about how we prepared the visualisation via a link from our notoswarclett.org article, “The visualisation they didn’t want us to see?”
Rural residents are very badly treated through Highland Council’s onshore wind farm policy. It seems outrageous that around 2021 they revised the policy, making it even worse – for example protective “bubbles” around Watten and some other Caithness settlements were removed. Shame on those councillors that supported such measures. They have played a full part in broadcasting the message, “Yes, rural residents in Caithness can be treated as fools.”
A Shaw
Bowertower
Wick
Keeping it to yourself…
I thought your nameless and address-less correspondent in last week’s Groat, “An alternative to the ‘nuclear option’ over council chaos”, wrote a quite brilliant letter summarising the plight of ‘restless natives’ who are absolutely scunnered with the ongoing failures of so-called British democracy both at local and national levels.
I was personally cited for one of my previous The Real Mackay columns, “Groundbreaking moves could shake up the system”, for demanding Scottish independence and an end of the dysfunctional Windsor monarchy. Bring on the Republic, was my battle cry!
The Nameless One has cautioned that folk like me, and other local activists – people like Thurso community councillors Iain Gregory and Billy Sinclair – should be careful what we wish for.
The Nameless One reminds us of the good old days of local democracy at Caithness District Council when we were subjected to “a variety of pompous tin-pot Napoleons, duffers and chancers”. Yes, that’s exactly how I remember them, too!
And at national level the performance of the SNP, the Nameless One suggests, “have made a total hips of running the country, none more effectively than the current lot who’ve squatted in Holyrood since 2007”. Yes, the SNP in the post-Salmond era, I would have to concede, have lost their grip on reality and imploded big style.
The Nameless One’s biggest gripe seems to be about a complete lack of respect, inclusion and engagement between Highland Council at Glenurquhart Road and our local community councils. And ongoing failures to follow the appropriate consultative working processes. The unresolved fiasco over the closure of Avonlea children’s home and the termination of respite services at Thor House being of special concern – highlighting a complete lack of transparency and accountability.
There is little I can disagree with in the Nameless One’s observations. Nor those of Iain Gregory and Billy Sinclair for that matter, both of whom are exasperated with Highland Council.
However, just in case he has forgotten, I’d rather we had our own local pompous, tin-pot duffers than faceless goons in Inverness. At least then we could collar our elected ones on the street if we felt they’d mucked up and give them laldy!
And similarly, Holyrood decision makers are better, as I see it, on matters Scottish than the snouts-in-the-gravy-trough-brigade at Westminster.
I do agree with the Nameless One that we are in for an interesting year ahead. Not least on the world stage with President-elect Trump: his threatened invasion of Greenland and the Panama Canal, his ending of the Ukraine war within 24 hours of taking up office, the imposition of global tariffs and his blind eye to the ongoing hellish war crimes on the Gaza Strip.
But on a final point, by the time the Nameless and Address-less one feels the need to protect his anonymity from the powers-that-be, surely that alone smacks of something fundamentally rotten with the current system of governance. Ja?
Dan Mackay
Wick
• Editor’s note: The Groat did not intend to offend any individual members of the current or past local authorities by publishing the anonymous letter, and apologise for any offence caused.
Where was council leader at Thurso debate?
If ever there was a saying that sums up Raymond Bremner’s attitude as the leader of Highland Council towards the people of Thurso it is his comment regarding his non-appearance at the community council meeting on the proposed parking arrangements in Thurso. (It is not applicable to him.)
Surely as leader of Highland Council and a person who when elected as leader said, and I quote, “Caithness comes first”, then this matter should have been near the top of his priorities. Instead he writes us off as if our opinions do not matter.
So what can we expect from Mr Bremner when this subject is debated? Well, I for one will not hold my breath waiting for his support.
Billy Sinclair
Ormlie Drive
Thurso
Plea for heating help at end of life
As we’ve seen this recent cold snap bring snow and ice to large parts of the country, the low temperatures are likely to have a disproportionate impact on those who are at the end of their lives, a demographic that is already more likely to be in poverty than any other group.
As temperatures drop, many terminally ill people will be forced to make the impossible choice between exacerbating their condition by living in an inadequately heated home or financial hardship.
Nobody should spend the final days of their life in a cold home, but energy costs can increase dramatically after a terminal diagnosis, as people need to spend more time at home and need to have the heating on higher and for longer. 110,000 people across the UK die in poverty each year (up from 90,000 in three years), and urgent action is needed by the Scottish and UK governments to end this “cost of dying crisis”.
We’ve launched our petition urging the government to take further steps to support people at the end of life with energy costs, including by introducing a social tariff. A social tariff that halves the energy bills of people with a terminal diagnosis could lift as many as 54,000 (45 per cent) dying people out of fuel poverty.
If you or a loved one are affected by terminal illness, or have been affected by dying, death and bereavement, Marie Curie can help. Visit Mariecurie.org.uk or call our free Marie Curie Support Line on 0800 090 2309.
Sarah Middlemiss
Policy campaigns manager
Marie Curie
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