Revised Teviot wind farm remains "unacceptable"

by EWAN LAMB

The scaled-down proposals for a giant wind farm in Teviotdale with the number of turbines cut from 62 to 53 would still have a detrimental impact on the area's conical-shaped hills and steep-sided valleys, according to a landscape expert who also condemned the original plan.

Scottish Borders Council is expected to finally reach a decision on Muirhall Energy's Teviot Wind Farm scheme south of Hawick in early 2025 after being granted several extensions by the Scottish Government's Energy Consents Unit.

A key element in the decision-making process will be the opinion provided by Siobhan McDermott, the council's landscape architect. 

In a report last year, Ms McDermott wrote: "Although there are no designated landscapes within the site, I suggest that the landscape of this area has a high local value arising from its perception of remoteness and relatively wild character, and an increased sensitivity due to the important routes in close proximity.

"The number and spread of turbines is threatening to turn this area into a wind farm landscape, with a consequence change of the landscape character from Uplands with Wind Turbines/No wind turbines to a Wind Turbine landscape. This increase in windfarms to the extent that it would become a windfarm landscape is, in my professional opinion a significant cumulative landscape effect.   The visualisations from many of the viewpoints (VPs) demonstrates how prominent and character changing a wind farm of this scale would be."

Her revised report, now published on the council's website shows Ms McDermott has not altered her views. She recommends that the council should object to the scheme.

The new report concludes: "I do not support a windfarm of this scale and with such large turbines on a group of hills that, in my opinion cannot accommodate them without unacceptable negative landscape and visual effects."

Ms McDermott explains that although her comment concentrates on the turbines and their landscape and visual effects, it is acknowledged that the dropping of the draft solar array proposal will have a positive landscape and visual impact on the immediate area where it was proposed. 

But she says the revised scheme does not markedly reduce the visibility of the array when seen from the selected viewpoints – there is no additional topographical containment achieved with the amended scheme. 

"The ZTV [Zones of Theoretical Visibility] mapping and visualisations provide a useful demonstration of just how little screening there is from surrounding areas, and this lack of containment coupled with the horizontal spread of turbines makes it highly visible and highly prominent in the landscape."

According to Ms McDermott, the complex topography of the site, seen by the juxtaposition of hills and ridges with an extensive network of watercourses in deep and steep-sided valleys suggests  that a wind farm of this scale cannot be accommodated without unacceptable effects on the landscape, both fabric and character. 

"These effects will especially diminish the character of the cone shaped hills such as Skelfhill Pen, Penchrise Pen and to a lesser extent, Maiden Paps, by virtue of surrounding or engulfing them with turbines.   While the remoteness, wild character and grandeur of scale currently remain the underlying character of the receiving landscape, these have already been modified by scattered forests. The addition of 53 very large turbines will further reduce or eliminate these characteristics".

The reduction in the number of turbines from 62 to 53 has not, in her professional opinion, mitigated the effects on the landscape. 

The turbines will affect a significant change to the perception of the landscape over a wide area,  with the spread of large turbines along the ridges, often engulfing the more characterful discrete hills, diminishing the character of the natural assemblage and from several viewpoints appearing to step down into the smaller scale upland fringes and valleys that separate the ridges and tops. 

"Even with a reduction of the number of turbines, the proposal remains very prominent and character changing in the landscape. 

"The revised visualisations demonstrate that despite the removal of nine turbines, with a very slight reduction in the horizontal extent of the view occupied by turbines, the proposed wind farm remains very prominent along the skyline from the majority of the representative viewpoints. Nor do I think there has been a significant reduction in the magnitude of change."

Despite the reduction of the number of turbines from 62 to 53, there has not been a notable reduction in significant effects on sensitive receptors both near and further afield, adds Ms McDermott.

"The array remains prominent in many views and dominates the hills onto which it is being located and in the worst examples diminishes what are widely seen as feature hills within the hill group. From Rubers Law, almost 15 km from the array, the discrete hills seen in the middle ground are dominated and diminished by the turbines that occupy a very wide horizontal extent of the view, with one turbine appearing to be sticking out of Skelfhill Pen."