A PROPOSAL to develop a wind farm that would have straddled East Ayrshire and Dumfries and Galloway has been altered to remove the turbines on the Ayrshire side.

WSP Global had planned a wind farm development of 15 turbines in total. Of these, a cluster of five in the west of the site were located in East Ayrshire, where it sits on ‘steep hilly moorland’ to the south of the Afton Reservoir and the Afton wind farm.

The majority of the site is in Dumfries and Galloway, as are the nearest homes.

The development site covers an area of approximately 1,243 hectares of mainly moorland with no tree cover, with the primary land use being grazing sheer at an elevation between 840ft and 2,100ft.

A report to East Ayrshire Council’s planning committee stated: “Following receipt of consultation responses to the application, the applicant carried out a design review and the western cluster of five turbines that was proposed within East Ayrshire have been removed from the proposed development along with the associated areas of hardstanding, access tracks and permanent met mast, leaving 10 turbines, all within Dumfries and Galloway.

“In terms of development which is sited within the EAC boundary, this now comprises an access track, borrow pit and a temporary compound.

“As such, the main considerations of the assessment of this application, are any direct potential impacts on East Ayrshire from these aspects of the development and any impacts the turbines within the neighbouring authority area, in terms of visual amenity and noise.”

The revised proposals are now for a development which comprises up to 10 wind turbines of up to 200m to blade tip height; access tracks, access from B729 and C class road (Lorg road) for HGVs only (no turbine deliveries); Hard standing areas e.g. crane pads and storage areas; a ‘permanent’ anemometer mast to monitor weather conditions.

Unlike most applications that come before the planning committee, the council is simply a consultee, with the Scottish Government’s energy consents unit the body that makes a decision on wind farms with a capacity of 50Mw or more.

The report states that the council has not received any objections, with the 21 objections made to the energy consents unit largely being from the neighbouring local authority.

The report added: “It is noted that the bulk of the objections have been submitted by residents within Dumfries and Galloway, given any potential impacts would be predominantly in this area.”