A different planet

An open letter to Fergus Ewing MSP

Dear Mr Ewing,

I am intrigued by the photograph of you in the Shetland News piece entitled: “Minister denies playing politics over Viking” (SN 4/4/12). Are you trying to demonstrate the size of a large wind turbine in relation to the size of your torso, or to the points raised by objectors to the Viking wind farm?

So, Mr Ewing, most of those points “have been met by the Habitat Management Plan (HMP) “have they? I would be most interested to learn how. For example:

Does the HMP require that turbines be located more than 2 km from dwellings? No. So some, if not many human lives, in the Shetland context, will still be blighted.

Does the HMP address the deleterious effect of roads, turbine bases, drainage and quarries, on blanket bog and peatland? No. Indeed at one point it states that roads will be beneficial.

Does the HMP mitigate the visual impact of the turbines on the Shetland landscape? No way! The HMP is not concerned with visual impact, nor for that matter the European Landscape Directive.

Does the HMP mitigate the wind farm effects on rare or threatened breeding birds? No, it relies on specious and ill-researched proposals such as “crow control”, which you seem to have swallowed, hook, line and sinker.

Does the HMP address the concerns of those who think the project is too risky a financial venture in these cash-strapped times? No, by no means. And, where there are calculations in the HMP, such as those for carbon payback, even they are flawed.

Can the proposed effects of the HMP be achieved by other and better means? Yes. Stock reduction and good management as part of a national, integrated and targeted policy on blanket bog can restore these valuable habitats. This has already occurred in Shetland via the ESA scheme, and it’s nonsense to say that without the wind farm such improvements cannot happen. Some roads, drains, turbine bases and quarries are planned to be sited on land that has taken tens, possibly hundreds, of years to improve in quality. Why wilfully destroy blanket bog in order to restore it?

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So Mr Ewing, considering that you seem to live on a different planet from me: if this wind farm ever does go ahead, and if I’m still around, I look forward to taking you, should you chance to visit this plutonic part of the universe – along with any other Viking Windfarm supporters who think this is just a matter of a few peerie windylights, borrow (wheelbarrow) pits and tracks ta da peat hill – up to some land that right now is rich in natural and cultural heritage. And I hope I’ll not be minded to quote to you Shelley’s Ozymandias: “Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!”

Yours sincerely,

James Mackenzie,
The Lea,
Tresta,