Community council makes final call for views on Stornoway wind farm

The picture attached is a visualisation of how the scheme will look from Newmarket, just outside Stornoway.

An island community council, which wants a public inquiry into a wind farm on the outskirts of Stornoway, has made a late plea to local residents to air their views.

Stornoway Community Council is preparing to submit its official response to the Scottish Government consultation on the matter.

Last month Comhairle nan Eilean Siar backed revised proposals for the 35-turbine scheme and said there was ‘no public interest’ in holding a public inquiry.

However, the Scottish Government agreed to extend the formal consultation deadline until March to allow the community council to make a submission of its own.

Consent for a wind farm on the site was granted in 2012, though the changes proposed by developers Lewis Wind Power/EDF would increase the heights of some turbines to 180-metres.

It will be Scottish Ministers who will decide on the future of the development.

In a statement this week the Stornoway Community Council claimed a public local inquiry was needed “in the interests of democracy and transparency”.

They have said the turbines will be the largest situated close to a major town in the UK and would be visible from around 12-kilometres out to sea.

The comhairle and landlords Stornoway Trust have consistently maintained that the region will not realise the full benefits of renewable energy generation without the large scale wind farm projects required to justify the cost of an interconnector cable to export power to the mainland.

Stornoway Community Council has until March 4th to submit its response to the consultation, and views can be submitted to them, no later than 28th February at stornowaycommunitycouncil@gmail.com.