The Dunmaglass disaster
Sir Jack Hayward is a past Chairman of Wolverhampton Wanderers and he owns the Dunmaglass Estate on the northern edge of the Monadh Liath. He doesn’t live there, he lives in Bermuda or the Bahamas or some other sun-kissed tax haven. That maybe accounts for the fact that he doesn’t mind part of his estate, a huge area of fragile, wildlife habitat that lies 2000 feet above sea level to be industrialised by almost three dozen wind turbines, each higher than the Big Ben clock tower. Or perhaps, more likely, he doesn’t mind because he will earn an estimated £9 million over 25 years by allowing yet another subsidy-motivated power company, Renewable Energy Systems (RES) to build miles of bulldozed tracks, pour hundreds of tonnes of concrete into swimming-pool size support bases and string up electricity cables to connect this so-called green power station to a national grid.
RES, incidentally, aren’t paying Hayward this vast amount of money out of sheet altruism, and neither are their motives fuelled by a desire to save the world from the effects of global warming. The company is in line to make profits of over £120 million from the Governments renewables’ slush-fund – a hoard of cash that is paid for by you and me.
The industrialisation of our wild places is being paid for by every electricity consumer in Britain. That’s partly why out bills are going through the roof. The Government’s Renewables Obligation, a financial support policy to stimulate demand for renewable energy, is driving this all-out windrush and needs fundamental reform. Our politicians need to do their bit for the wild lands of Scotland, as well as saving energy. The two should be compatible but we need to see incentives for renewable energy based on community need rather than commercial greed. Such incentives must be geared to support smaller scale local community schemes along with better support for offshore renewable energy generation.
It’s a curious thing but on the one hand we have a Government that pays subsidies to farmers to look after the land in more environmentally-friendly ways, and on the other hand they are paying huge subsidies to power companies to destroy it in the most environmentally un-friendly ways. There appears to be a total lack of joined-up thinking coming from Whitehall and Holyrood. It’s such a shame that was not reflected in the ballot boxes of the last General Election, but it could have a bearing in next year’s Scottish election, especially if Jim Mather and co continue to approve such schemes as this one at Dunmaglass. Mather was also the minister who approved the Beauly-Denny power scheme. It’s time he went, he’s screwing up Scotland’s wild landscapes in no uncertain terms.
A few weeks ago I was invited to speak at the opening ceremony of an international Adventure Travel Conference in Aviemore. When I discovered I had to share a platform with a Government minister I was concerned. When I was told that Government minister was Jim Mather I pulled out. I’m afraid I couldn’t bring myself to listen to him banging on about what a marvellous place Scotland was for adventure sports, while he was intent in ruining some of the wildest parts of it. But that’s hypocrisy and that’s politics - the two go hand in hand, and I wasn’t going to get involved in it.
So it came to me as no surprise that despite thousands of objections Mather has approved this scheme at Dunmaglass. The development is sickening in its scale and insensitivity. The turbines will be seen as “pale, moving man-made vertical elements in a landscape with few obvious influences of man.” Those are not my words but the words from the RES Environmental Impact Statement. The same statement also casually proclaims that up to 11 golden eagles could die. It doesn’t say how many red kite, ospreys, buzzards, merlin, raven, grouse or geese might die and it avoids confronting the fact that in places like California and Spain thousands of raptors are killed annually by spiralling turbine blades.
When the plans were first announced I visited Coignafearn and was shown around by the estate keeper, Sandy Day. Since this estate was bought by Sigrid Rausing a few years ago it has seen a remarkable transformation. Woodland is being regenerated, the sporting estate is being managed on ecologically sustainable principles and Rausing’s “Coignafearn Vision” is a wonderful strategy for its future as the sustainable heart of the Monadh Liath. Golden Eagle have been encouraged to stay on the estate and attempt to breed for the first time in 30 years.
Sandy took me high on the hill overlooking Coignafearn and with some pride told me what had been achieved in a comparatively short time. He then swept his arm over the near horizon and indicated the scale of the Dunmaglass Power Station, a project that will totally undermine all the efforts that have been made to manage this one time Royal Deer Forest. The proposals are arrogant, greedy and insensitive – an affront to both man and nature.
The three estates that neighbour Hayward’s Dunmaglass, along with thousands of hillwalkers and ornithologists opposed this scheme. Mather’s approval of it and his mumbo-jumbo about “a great year for renewable developments” should ring alarm bells in the ears of everyone who appreciates wild land. If that includes you, then consider joining the John Muir Trust and supporting its Wild Land Campaign.