Hay's Way: Katharine meets farmers in Scotland's Wind Farm Alley

National World - Broadcast Video

Katharine Hay meets farmers in Scotland's Wind Farm Alley as she continues her walking tour of Scotland. This time she is in Dumfries and Galloway.

Transcript

00:00 [Music]

00:19 Hi, my name's Catherine. I'm the Rural Affairs Correspondent at the Scotsman.

00:23 I'm currently on a walking trip around Scotland

00:27 and I've got to a place which is locally known as Wind Farm Alley,

00:33 which is between Newloose and Bar Hill in Dunfries and Galloway.

00:37 And I've just been walking up through the valley.

00:41 I came across some local farmers in the area who were happy to share their view with me

00:46 on their thoughts about the money that comes from the wind farm companies

00:52 and just the visual impact and environmental impact of having these turbines on the land surrounding their homes.

00:58 Do you all work on the land around here as you're the farmer?

01:01 Yes, in Newloose.

01:04 And there's a community committee that organises the money that they get from the wind farm.

01:11 They built a renovated hotel in Newloose with wind farm money.

01:18 And what about as a farmer? Do you benefit? Do they give you some money for using your land?

01:25 No, we don't get any. There's none on our land.

01:28 But there's land going us round about, it's compensated, and they get an annual rental.

01:35 It'll be a percentage.

01:37 And if the tenants are on that land, the landlord gets about 80% and the tenant gets about 20%,

01:45 roughly anyway, between 20 and 30%.

01:49 And you were saying earlier you don't mind the visual impact?

01:52 No, I think they're just graceful and nice to see in the morning,

01:56 to get a good direction from where the wind's coming from.

02:00 It's getting us away from oil anyway.

02:03 It's the future, I think, which is we have to go with it, the wind power.

02:09 I mean, it's the air and it's free.

02:12 I think more than a fifth of Scotland's wind power is just in that valley.

02:18 Do you feel it's a bit excessive, the amount?

02:21 There's quite a lot of windmills.

02:23 That's where they should be. There's no population up there.

02:26 That's where they should be.

02:28 Out on the sea, yeah. That's it.

02:30 We've got very few protesters because we're so underpopulated.

02:35 It's bringing money into the area too for coffees and various other things.

02:42 We're maybe a wee bit overloaded with them.

02:46 How long have you lived here?

02:48 Eh, 50, 60 years.

02:51 So?

02:52 There was none then. None at all.

02:56 Have you noticed the money coming in, does it help the towns?

03:02 Not personally, no.

03:05 But as far as these villages, all the villages are benefiting from them.

03:11 I mean, the buildings, they've helped to do up all buildings and stuff.

03:19 Yeah, I saw the village square.

03:21 Community hubs, things like that, they have benefited.

03:26 So you're not too worried about them?

03:28 No, not at all.

03:30 [no audio]

03:45 I'm going to head to New Luce to talk to some residents there,

03:49 to hear their views on wind farms being put up in this part of the country.

03:54 I think what makes it different to other areas, but similar to some as well,

03:58 is just the number of wind farms and wind turbines in this area.

04:03 There's probably, well, someone said there's over 500 turbines,

04:08 which is not a huge area,

04:11 and there's at least three applications, I think, for more just at the moment.

04:18 So, yeah, I'm going to speak with some residents in New Luce,

04:22 which is just at the foot of this place called Wind Farm Alley.

04:26 [no audio]

04:46 The village had the hotel as an asset,

04:53 and when the previous owners left,

04:57 the place shut down for basically four to five years.

05:02 And with the wind farms that were surrounding the area,

05:08 there was a community benefit fund that was set up.

05:12 A lot of the money comes from the SPR, Scottish Power Renewables,

05:18 and it was through the community trust that they were able to access this money.

05:26 And then with their help and help from a couple of other funds,

05:32 we purchased the building and renovated it, totally renovated it.

05:38 It was stripped right back to being a bare stone shell.

05:43 And, well, now you see the results of the labours.

05:48 It took about 18 months to do,

05:51 and we've got a beautiful building now, which is well used.

05:56 The New Luce Community Trust has been held up by Scottish Power Renewables

06:03 as an excellent, good practice of using community funds

06:12 for the benefit of the community.

06:15 And how much did it take to restore this building?

06:19 I think all told it was about £1.1 million,

06:23 including purchase and renovation fees.

06:27 But as you can see, we've got a tremendous asset,

06:30 which will last for the next 200 years, hopefully.

06:35 Long after I'm gone.

06:38 I have been asking everyone this, I saw a model of this area in Newsham Stewart,

06:44 and it's quite a lot of turbines already, and I know that bigger ones are on their way.

06:49 Does it worry you a little bit that it might be a bit excessive at any point?

06:53 Because I know over a fifth of Scotland's, I think, turbines are just in this little bit.

06:58 Again, depending on who you speak to, you'll get a different response.

07:03 Some people don't mind them, other people say we've had enough.

07:08 And I can understand that, because as we come over the road from Castle Kennedy,

07:15 all you see in about a 270-degree arc is wind turbines.

07:21 And I can see where it does impact on the visual look of the area.

07:30 But there again, you have to weigh up the pros and cons of it.

07:35 It's a curse, but it's also a blessing for communities.

07:40 So you've just got to weigh up the two.

07:43 We're actually surrounded by them.

07:45 You start off, you look over towards Port Patrick, we start there,

07:48 you come over here, you've got them up the back there towards where the dam is,

07:53 Glenwillie and all that up there, right across, right round the back on the southern upland way.

07:58 You dug that up and removed it, and then it comes right across.

08:04 So we're actually surrounded.

08:06 About 500, I reckon. Easy.

08:09 So do you feel, as you said, it was a bribe, the kind of community benefit?

08:13 Yes, just so that the community doesn't go, "We don't want them, we've got enough."

08:19 There's a bit of an uprising over in the borders and places like that,

08:23 and further up country towards Dumfries, where the plan of permission is getting refused now

08:29 because the communities have just had enough of it.

08:32 It's about looking at ways where we actually do get some sustained benefit out of it

08:37 instead of the odd little bribe here and there.

08:40 How divided is the village, do you think? Is it kind of 50/50?

08:43 I think the agricultural side of the village, the farming community,

08:48 that gets benefits out of it for having it on their land, I think that's a wonderful thing.

08:53 But like, you know, I like myself that doesn't have one in my garden.

09:01 I dare say if I was getting a good bit of money every year because it stuck to my back garden,

09:07 I might go, "Oh yeah, I can save the benefit of that."

09:10 But as it is in the village, we don't really get any benefit other than things we maybe don't want.

09:17 The thing is, I mean, it's like, you know, we've got the pub out of it and the community benefit,

09:21 so that's great. It doesn't benefit me, but of course, then of course, they didn't think it through.

09:27 So we now got added parking in the street and everyone's at each other's throat now trying to get park

09:32 because we've got people coming for meals and stay in the weekend,

09:35 and because you can't get park when you come home, it's like, "Oh, bloody pub."

09:39 [TRAFFIC]

09:44 [WIND]

09:48 I just wanted to come and talk to people there who are like actually next to it.

09:52 Does it bother you at all?

09:54 Well, we are... it's the benefits probably outweigh the disadvantages for the actual farm

10:01 because, you know, these sheds were all run down, but with the money that...

10:05 Well, that one's been replaced.

10:07 With the money that the owner got.

10:09 The income from them.

10:11 The income that he got, he was able to get new steading.

10:15 And it has benefited other ways. I mean, there's roads through the farm now,

10:19 which makes it easier for accessing.

10:24 To start with, it was a bit strange, but after six or seven months, you get used to it.

10:31 But no, I think because they give funding to the communities,

10:36 which is probably a bit of a bribe, really, it is good because, I mean,

10:40 the wee community, they struggle to get anything.

10:44 And it has opened... they bought the pub and they've opened it up,

10:49 and the guy that's running it is a really good chef.

10:52 Again, we get certain allowances for the community fund.

10:55 We get a £200 heating allowance for everyone that's in the parish in Ulus,

11:00 and we get a taxi card every year, £140.

11:06 £150.

11:07 So £150 on it, which, again, I mean, you're helping local taxis if you can...

11:13 you know, if you're using it.

11:15 So, I mean, there is a lot of benefits.

11:19 And apart from the, like, the new Ulus area, there's also Kilgallic...

11:26 That's called Kilgallic Wind Farm.

11:28 And there's KCBC, which is Kilgallic Community Benefit Fund,

11:32 and it oversees the whole of that, which is about £1.2 million, I think,

11:38 or £1.4 million.

11:40 Is that a year?

11:42 Yep.

11:43 Right.

11:44 And it's for all... any businesses in the local area,

11:49 outwith the core communities can apply for funding for it.

11:54 And you see...

11:55 I've been to the director on it, and it's amazing the number of, you know,

11:59 different charities that are benefiting.

12:01 Small charities and stuff, you know, that is benefiting outwith the actual...

12:04 that don't see the windmills, probably.

12:07 So it has been good.

12:09 And the kind of ground it is here, you know, it's quite sparsely populated,

12:15 so the people that are negatively affected, there's not too many of them,

12:19 you know, compared to maybe other areas.

12:23 The thing I don't like is the shadow flicker.

12:27 We don't get it in the house very often, just very occasionally,

12:30 and it's only early in the morning for a few seconds.

12:35 That's not particularly nice, and I think it's the house further up

12:38 that maybe gets bothered with it more.

12:40 I don't know.

12:42 So that wouldn't be great.

12:43 Sometimes they're quite noisy, but it's not a bad noise.

12:46 It's more like a whooshing sound.

12:49 Yeah.

12:50 [wind blowing]

13:06 My experience walking through Wind Farm Alley from Newloose to Barhill,

13:12 yeah, the number of individual turbines has been very noticeable.

13:18 There's a lot of clusters of these wind turbines all over.

13:23 Everywhere you walk, you can see them.

13:25 So I can understand why people feel they're imposing.

13:31 It's very beautiful, this valley, and there's a lot of bird life.

13:36 You can hear oyster catcher, curlew, skylarks.

13:39 It seems to be pretty alive with birds.

13:42 So hopefully that means the birds are coping and living alongside the moque

13:46 rather than feeling pushed away.

13:48 I understand some of the wind farms have been here for over 20 years now.

13:55 It just does feel a little excessive that they've got, I think,

13:59 another three proposed for the area.

14:04 But, again, I spoke to some farmers who live around in the hills, in the valley,

14:11 and they weren't phased, and that includes farmers

14:14 who aren't getting money from wind farms because they don't have any on their land.

14:19 They're just simply around them.

14:23 And other residents have said that the money is bringing them,

14:28 which they wouldn't be getting otherwise if it was, say, from the Scottish government.

14:33 The benefits are outweighing the negatives.

14:37 But talking to campaign group Hands Off Far Hills,

14:40 who are fiercely fighting against the next proposals for some wind farms

14:48 near Newton Stewart and near Galloway Forest Park,

14:52 they have a lot of reasons and they've raised a lot of questions

14:56 over just wind farms in general.

14:58 Are they good for the land?

15:00 Are there environmental implications?

15:02 Like, is there a reason why we might be having more flooding

15:06 because they're not great up on the hill for helping keep water up on the hill?

15:11 There's a bull, and I just heard a bit of a stampede.

15:25 And, anyway, luckily they're running in a different direction,

15:28 but I honestly thought they were just coming for me.

15:31 [wind blowing]

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