Sample letters: Please cut and paste any points that you find relevant and include them in your letter.
Dear Mr MacLean
I am writing to object to the proposals by PM Renewables to build a wind farm on Coldingham Moor (planning application number 05/00425/FUL).
As a frequent visitor to the area I know that the road in question is a designated tourist route, notable for its wonderful views and tranquility. Visitors to the Borders are drawn to the area for the peace and quiet and beautiful countryside – if you allow this to be industrialised the numbers of tourists will fall and the business which depend on them will be destroyed. Any offers of grants to the community will be far outweighed by the loss of income.
The proposal is also unsafe – driver distraction would be inevitable, both to drivers passing through the middle of 22 wind turbines on the A1107, and to drivers on the busy A1, a road with an already high level of accidents.
The application contravenes Scottish Borders Council Strategic Plan (I20) and the Local Plan (D4). Please do not allow it to proceed.
Yours sincerely,
Dear Mr MacLean
I am writing to object to the prosals by PM Renewables to build a wind farm on Coldingham Moor (planning application number 05/00425/FUL) on the grounds that it contravenes both Scottish Borders Council Strategic Plan (I20) and the Local Plan (D4).
Any such development will be extremely destructive to the environment – St Abbs Head is a National Nature Reserve and home to 80,000 breeding individuals including kittiwakes, razorbills and shags. There will be loss of foraging habitat to hen harrier, disturbance to geese feeding fields and destruction of ancient hedgerows, trees, flora and fauna. Birds will be killed by turbine sails.
It is unacceptable to destroy the ‘Cockit Hat’ – a nature walk for visitors and residents for many years – to make an access road for the turbines.
Tourism will be destroyed as will the lives of people who live on the moor – both those who have been there for generations and those who have come in recent times to enjoy the peace offered by the area.
Scottish Borders Council has a responsibility to protect its residents. Please do the right thing and make sure that this plan is thrown out.
Yours sincerely
Points which can be used in letters include any of the following:
OPPOSITION TO PM Renewables’ (PMR) PROPOSED WIND FARM (WF) at
DRONE HILL, COLDINGHAM MOOR. Sections A) - F) are structured to identify where the WF fails to comply with Scottish Borders Structure Plan, the Borders Council Local Planning Policies, and Scottish Executive Policies.
(A): Impact on Landscape Character of the area, neighbouring areas and neighbouring structures plan areas as guided by Landscape Character Assessment: Scale of landscape: - Contravenes Local policy 62, & Scottish Executive PAN 45 para 72. Turbines will be 76m high and they will therefore be prominent and highly visible. The proposed site is virtually flat and therefore not suitable as the turbines cannot be integrated into the landscape and all 22 of them will remain in view. Borders Landscape Assessment 1998 confirms that Coldingham Moor has high Internal Intervisibility due to simplicity of the landform, lack of tree cover, rarity of internal screening features; it has protection of prominent historic sites including landscape settings. The amended proposal is just as intrusive and with as great an visual impact as the first proposal and should therefore for be reassessed for visual impact. The developers have not carried out an amended visual impact study, they must be made to do another one and they must demonstrate that they comply with policies. The amended WF application has more, not less impact on the moor and on the surrounding properties. Contravenes Local Policy NE4: Coldingham Moor is classed as Coastline not Uplands, which are the preferred location for Wind farms. Contravenes Scottish Executives Policy SPP15 Planning for rural development: WF does not preserve the character and quality of the environment. Contravenes local policy NE2: there are 2 sites of special scientific interest in this area therefore the WF should not be located in this area. Also damage to drainage will be caused by WF and this is not acceptable. Flocks of migrating birds settle in fields close by and fly directly through the WF proposed site. This is not acceptable, birds will be killed (PMR predicts that 28 birds will be killed over the next 25 years, this estimate similar to the rest of PMR’s report is highly questionable and must be checked by a independent body. Contravenes Scottish Borders Council Policy D4 which quantifies the effect of distance on visual impact of WF from habitation e.g. 0-2.5 km is dominant impact, 2.5-5.0 km is major impact and this WF is therefore is visually intrusive and is therefore unacceptable. Contravenes Scottish Executive PAN 45:- Section 36 of the Electricity Act 1989 states that wind farms fall within schedule 2 i.e. if a proposed development is located within a “sensitive area” as defined at Regulation 2(1) from Scottish Statutory Instrument 2000 No 320, Electricity, Schedule 2 , and Scottish Executive PAN 45 states that a development up to 2km (1.242 miles) a wind farm would be a prominent fixture in an open landscape and Scottish Ministers support 2km as a separation distance between turbines and the edge of habitable areas. The Moor House is a medieval farmstead therefore this should be classed as sensitive area as it is within 2km of the proposed wind farm. 56 properties/farms/businesses fall within 5km of the proposed site and this highlights the inappropriate position of this site. PMR admit in their revised planning supporting statement that the effect of the wind farm would be considered significant and major in local terms, confirming contravention. PMR also state in their Revised planning supporting statement that the “revision of the wind farm has not significantly reduced the visibility of the turbines from key viewpoints”
(B): Structure Plan’s Environmental Policy: The Precautionary Principle: WF does not comply with this principle which underpins the protection for the natural heritage, nor does it recognise the importance of ecological networks and important habitats. Contravening Local Policy D4:- Coldingham Moor is viewed as scenic with aspects of natural enjoyment with extensive natural habitats and lack of human presence (including man made constructions) and therefore has a strong visual and sensory perceptual impact to locals and visitors. The Moor occupies a strategic site guarding the main historic coastal route way “the route to tranquillity” between Lothians and the Merse and has a high concentration of Iron Age fortified settlements it has been designated as having many sites of special scientific interest according to the Borders Landscape Assessment 1998. Contravenes General Policy G1 (Scottish Borders): This policy aims to ensure that any new structure does not negatively impact on the existing buildings or surrounding landscape and visual amenity of the area and the proposed WF contravenes the following standards as numbered and explained below: Standard 1: WF is not compatible with nor respects the character of the surrounding area. Standard 3: WF does not retain physical or natural features of habitats which are important to the amenity or biodiversity of the area nor dose it make provision for adequate mitigation or replacements. Standard 4: WF is not designed in sympathy with Scottish Borders architectural styles. Standard 12: WF is not of a scale, massing, height and density appropriate to it’s surroundings: The residencies on Coldingham Moor should be classed as a Preferred Building Group, or at least a building group as it is an Expanding community and could under local current planning policies expand by 100%. A planning application is already with the TCP dept for two additional dwellings at Hawthorndean.
(C): Impact of Noise on residential and other noise-sensitive developments; Noise Pollution from the 22 turbines; the moor is a very quiet environment, with only the sounds of bleating sheep and bird song, which be replaced by an highly unacceptable underlying mechanical noisy wind turbine engines constant though day and night.
(D): Interference with Aircraft activity: Low Flying Aircraft: Borders region is designated as LFA20T which has fast jets and Hercules aircraft which operate at 250-100ft; WF turbines at proposed site will be 250ft and could cause radar interference and be highly dangerous. MOD says that obstacles in excess of 100 feet, unlit at night and with ability to cause interference to radar have potential to cause an acute safety hazard to LFAs Dr. Lewis Moonie MP (Hansard 22 March 2001).
(E): Significant increased risk of shadow flicker or driver distraction: Contravenes Local Policy I 19 & I 20:- Shadow Flicker will be a problem– the sun will pass behind the rotor blades of the turbines and cast a shadow over neighbouring properties and also badly affect the vision of drivers travelling along A1107 particularly as sun passes the zenith towards the west horizon, this occurs in the afternoon usually when travellers are returning home from work in both directions up and down the A1107. (PMR’s claim in this respect are totally wrong and inaccurate).
(F): Unacceptable cumulative impacts: Contravenes Local Policy NE3:- the wind farm construction and long term impact of the WF site on the water/drainage, flora, fauna, will seriously affect environmental biodiversity of the area, this must not be permitted to happen. Contravenes Local Policy NE4 & INF 2:- Routing of Construction traffic and disruption/removal of hedgerows, trees, ditches and bushes, lining the narrow lanes. Unacceptable disturbances will be created over the period of at least 12months during construction, and access to the site by huge heavily laden lorries, articulated lorries with 100ft turbine blades. Scottish Executive (Scottish Planning Policy) SPP6 on Renewable Energy, Local Planning Policy and Scottish Executive PAN 45 and Natural Heritage Guidance; we challenge the siting of the wind farm on Coldingham Moor as it contravenes the above legislation/guidance as the WF as proposed does not afford significant protection against cumulative impacts. Visual envelope of development: – The envelope is too small for the number of turbines proposed. It will be seen from many locations particularly from the windows of all the houses/farm steadings on the moor and the large Highview Caravan site. It is erroneous for the developer to say that most houses on the moor have a screened view of the WF site; it will have a domineering effect on the moor and must not be permitted to proceed. Zoning in the Structure plan (Scottish Borders) does not identify Coldingham Moor as a development area; therefore the WF must not be permitted to proceed. The proposed wind farm site would create a planning blight and send property values plummeting. The RICS 2004 survey shows that 60% of chartered surveyors with experience of house transactions near to wind farms report that they negatively affect house prices; further RICS Research, (March 2007) states that property prices fall by as much as 54%. Among those surveyors who say that house prices are reduced by proximity to a wind farm, most cite the visual impact as the biggest cause for concern with there being a significant impact on properties located within a mile of a wind farm. RICS chief economist Milan Khatri (2004) says “Our survey shows a clear majority who find that a wind farm nearby suppresses house prices” and further research is required on long term effects.