Amenity trust unanimously oppose Viking

SHETLAND’S main heritage organisation has renewed its opposition to plans to build a 457 megawatt wind farm in the north and central mainland of the isles.
 
On Friday, the last day for public responses to the gargantuan project, Shetland Amenity Trust said it was still too large despite having been scaled down from 150 to 127 turbines.

Discussing the project in private on Wednesday, trustees were unanimous in their opposition. They said the wind farm’s green credentials had not been proven and its impact on Shetland’s natural and cultural heritage was likely to be unacceptable.
 
The trust’s 38 page response to the Scottish government’s energy consent unit said: “Despite the modest reduction in size and impacts, however, Shetland Amenity Trust believes that this development is still totally out of scale with Shetland’s world class landscape.
 
“No rigorous, scientific assessment of the carbon balance of the proposed development has been carried out and, therefore, the ‘green credentials’ of this project have not been properly tested.
 
“The impact of the Wind Farm on the natural and cultural heritage remains unacceptable and the Habitat Management Plan contains a series of measures that are largely untried in such an extreme climate, some of which are unlikely to be successful.”
 
The authors then go on to suggest ten conditions that should be imposed upon the developers should the Scottish government decide to grant planning consent. These include the call for an inquiry for all conflicting assertions to be tested in the public domain.