UKC

Well done to the John Muir Trust for having the bottle to take on the Scottish Government over the Stronelairg wind farm - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-35006449 - and winning!
The Monadh Liath may not be the most exciting of hills, but its value as 'wild land' is worth preserving. There are many other more appropriate locations for wind farms.

Hopefully SNH and the Government will now reinstate the area in the Wild Land map, and thereby give it (and its huge reserves of peat which help mitigate climate change) some measure of protection.

In reply to Grahame N:

Well done to the JMT indeed! There's always going to be a bit of a dilemma over the climate change benefits of wind farms versus the preservation of what wild spaces we have left, but I think this one was pretty clear cut and well worth arguing.

In reply to Grahame N:

Excellent. Good place for quiet skiing.

In reply to Grahame N:

It does have peat - lots of it and for that reason should not have a wind farm on it but wild? Nonsense! It is keepered to within an inch of its life and has a great big hydro power station, hydro dam and associated tracks all over it!

In reply to Grahame N:

Grahame

I don't think the saga is over. I would be surprised if there isn't an appeal, so those involved need to be ready for that.

George

PS- How's things?- hope you are still getting up there.

In reply to Grahame N:

Not unexpectedly the Scottish Government and SSE have decided to appeal the judicial review decision http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-35152370

Not good news for the Monadh Liath.

In reply to Grahame N:
A little bit of an explanation:-
The judicial review was not about whether the windfarm was a good idea or not, but about the lawfulness of the process that lead to the decision to approve the windfarm.
The judge determined that major errors were made in the planning application and therefore the decision was unlawful.

The honourable thing for SSE to do now would be to make a fresh planning application, but SSE have never been an honourable company, they are simply out to make as much profit as possible (£549m in the last 6 months).
The JMT are a tiny organisation with very limited financial resources – a real David versus Goliath situation.

Interestingly the judge also said that the JMT’s action had been for the public good. You would have thought that the Scottish Government would have the public good in mind – it appears not.

In reply to Grahame N:

All they'll be interested in is making good on their 100% renewable electricity by 2020 pledge.