Apologies for the lack of communication, here is a general update.

Macritch Hill - Great news! The application has been withdrawn and there is much delight and celebration in the Glen. Take a walk up to the Backwater Reservoir, enjoy the beautiful countryside and you may well be lucky and spot some of the rare wild species that make the area their home.

Saddlehill - The developers, Wind Prospect, have been delaying the hearing of this application. Despite having signed an agreement with Angus Council setting out the timetable for determining the application, Supplementary Information regarding noise was submitted at the 11th hour. Originally the application was submitted in November 2014 and there have been various dates for the hearing from May 2015 to January 2016. The January date seemed to be going ahead and many folk had made arrangements to attend cancelling hospital appointments, car pooling with friends etc only to find the hearing delayed once more.

It seems that these tactics have been used by the developer elsewhere. A letter was published in the Courier on 23rd of January.The writer was Celia Hobbs of Penicuik. She highlighted the shameful tactics that Wind Prospect get up to. In her area WP submitted a planning application for windfarm. There were a thousand objections. The day before the hearing, with objectors preparing to attend, WP withdrew the objection. A few months later WP resubmitted the application which meant that the objections were no longer valid and they had to start objecting all over again. WP then appealed due to non determination even though a new date for the hearing had been set.
However, there was happy ending with the application being refused by Reporter.

We will publicise the next dates for determination by Angus Council and Perth and Kinross Council as soon as they are confirmed.....

Click HERE to read more about how Rachel Connor and Susan Crothswaite have been getting information about the risk to public water supplies into the national press.Their hard work and determination has paid off. "The Scottish government is under the spotlight now and there is nowhere to hide."

This has major implications for Macritch... something we have been saying for a while.

You will no doubt be aware of the changes in legislation which are being introduced by Amber Rudd, Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change. There has been much press coverage and a predictable response from the SNP. Rural dwellers are however delighted - click to read

This week the debate focused on the cost to individuals of the heavily subsidised renewable energy market, something that we have been pointing out for some time - click to read

A stall at the Alyth Show last month attracted a lot of attention. People were horrified at the number of turbines which are proposed for the area and the Courier ran an article the following week
Click here to read

Apologies for the silence (due mainly to BT taking 7 weeks to fix a damaged cable but that's another story...), there is still lots going on re Saddlehill, Macritch, Greenburn, Carrach and all the other proposed developments in this neck of the woods.

Saddlehill was given a date of the 4th of August to be heard by Angsu Council. This date was pretty much, almost, definite until the last gasp when the developers, Wind Prospect, requested a further time extension in order that they could respond to reports from the Council's Environmental Health department.
This from the developers..
"We received a response from Angus Council's Environmental Health Officer regarding local water supply on 3rd July 2015 and have since been liaising with our consultants in order to respond.

In discussions with the planning officer, we advised that we were intending to submit a response and made the reasonable request that this be considered prior to the finalisation of his report to committee. However, as the planner's deadline for his report to committee was today (20th July 2015), we did not have sufficient time to provide such a response despite our best endeavours. This was agreed on Friday meaning that the report could not be finalised today. As such, the 4th August committee date would not be met.

It is the planner’s decision as to if our response is considered to be Supplementary Environmental Information (SEI) or a clarification from us on the points raised.

If our response is considered to be SEI, it will be advertised as required under the EIA Regulations. In addition, we will update the local community via this group and project website as before when we have further confirmations. Please share this latest update with members of your community council."


So, a new date for you diary is 15th of September when Angus Council may be considering the application. Perth and Kinross Council are hearing the application on the 16th of September - maybe the developers were keen to only have to make one journey to Tayside!

The Telegraph has today published an article pointing out the positive benefits for Scotland which will result from the changes being made to onshore wind subsidies.

Click HERE to read about "Rural Scotland's delight at windfarm subsidy axe"

Today's Courier - Protesters accuse windfarm developer of treating Angus community like "country bumpkins"

Read all about it HERE

Perth and Kinross Council become the latest in a long list of statutory consultees who OBJECT to the industrial wind turbine development at Macritch Hill (Backwater Reservoir). Councillors voted today to accept the recommendation of the Development Quality Manager and send a clear message to Scottish Water and ENECO that their plans are unacceptable.

Surely it is time for this application to be withdrawn?

Click HERE to read the article in today's Telegraph