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OBJECTION TO THE PAIRC WINDFARM PROJECT - TOURISM ETC.

ISLE OF LEWIS, SCOTLAND

PROMOTER : SCOTTISH AND SOUTHERN ENERGY



Dear Scottish Ministers,


Please register my objection to the above project, for the following reasons :

In various polls, islanders have rejected an industrial-scale windfarm project that politicians want to impose upon them : that of the Barvas Moor.

Equally opposed are the tourists : the Western Isles Tourist Board TIC Visitor Survey, 2003, found that visitors to the Western Isles are seeking " peace, tranquility, atmosphere, character, scenery, history, culture and nature ". Sightseeing is most popular with 86% per cent of them .

In another visitor survey, conducted in 2004 in the north west of the island, “ more than half of the 276 respondents ... believe that any windfarm development in the area will discourage tourists from visiting the island."
Maggie Fraser - Stornoway Gazette, 23-9-04

This survey concerned the c200-turbine Barvas windfarm project. It is significant, particularly in view of the one-sided, strongly pro-windfarm point of view of politicians, mainstream ecology NG0´s, renewable energy lobbyists, and the media. It takes strong feelings to resist such brainwashing in favour of turbinising the island.

A remarkably high percentage of surveyed visitors - 90% - expressed that they were against the massive AMEC project. And 54% felt that any windfarm , no matter how small, would discourage tourists from visiting Lewis. This too is worth thinking about.

Tourism is estimated to be worth about £60 million to the island economy, accounting for about a quarter of the job market. Jeopardising permanent, non subsidy-dependent, valuable jobs in order to create a few temporary ones ( say 2 years ) sounds to me like shooting oneself in the foot.

The cumulative effect of the various windfarms planned for Lewis may be appreciated on the map available here : MAP
To this must be added the small Monan windfarm, to the south of the island.

If the decision makers wanted to destroy the island´s tourism industry, and its potential for growth, they would not proceed differently.

To this must be added the tremendous harm to a promising source of new jobs : the construction and maintenance of secondary and/or retirement residences .

From an economic, social, and quality of life point of view, windfarms on Lewis are an altogether bad proposition. Consequently, they also are politically non-desirable.


X X X



Four more objections to the Pairc project were published here :


Pairc windfarm : irreparable damage to hydrology

Will the Scottish Government condemn the Scottish eagles to extinction ?

Absurdity is .... repeating the same mistake, thus causing more peat slides

Absurdity is... destroying carbon sinks in the name of Kyoto



Mark Duchamp............................................................24 July 2007

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