Doubts emerge at Spiorad na Mara public meeting in Shawbost

Up to 50 people attended a public meeting last Thursday in Shawbost to discuss the Spiorad na Mara development, a 900 megawatt scheme in which the closest of the turbines – over 1,000 feet in height – will be sited just five kilometres offshore.

The vast majority of those who attended the meeting were clearly opposed to the project and raised a number of concerns, including the lack of information, with a formal planning application expected later this year.

Northland Power, a Canadian company, was successful in securing the N4 site in the Scotwind licensing round, where a number of locations around the Scottish coast were auctioned off to renewable energy developers. Another, larger site lies off the Butt of Lewis, but is much further out to sea.

A panel of five were assembled by the Shawbost Community Council to try and address the questions of the audience: Torcuil Crichton MP, Comhairle nan Eilean Siar convener Kenny Macleod, local councillor Donald MacSween, Ivan Brown of the Barvas Estate Trust and solicitor Maggie Mackay, representing Dalmore estate. The meeting was chaired by retired BBC journalist, Angus Macdonald.

An invitation was also extended to Na h-Eileanan an Iar MSP Alasdair Allan, but he declined due to his ministerial responsibilities as Scottish Government acting climate change minister.

Comhairle convener Kenny Macleod explained to the audience that councillors, at this stage, were unable to outline a definitive position one way or the other due to concerns over prejudicing the planning process, but that as local councillors they would seek to represent the views of constituents.

“The offshore side of things, that will be for the Scottish Government to decide,” he said. “But the Comhairle will have to decide on the planning for a lot of the onshore infrastructure, so we can’t (give a view).”

Torcuil Crichton MP told the audience that the proposal “was not where we want to be” – the site was too close to the coastline, the Scotwind licensing round was “sold on the cheap” (£700 million in total; £16 million for N4), and there was no legal duty on the developer to provide community benefit.

Mr Crichton praised the estates in north Lewis for negotiating a deal whereby Northland – if the project goes ahead – will provide them with £4.5 million every year, “but there is no statutory mechanism to do this and there should be - it shouldn’t left to communities to battle multi-nationals.”

Donald Smith, of South Shawbost, questioned the approach of Northland, saying the consultation meetings to date had been disingenuous and dishonest because they had not “consulted on the actual plan”. He said they should “pay for the infrastructure to move the project further out”.

“We have a reputation for our sunsets and our dark skies,” he said. “That’s all going to be destroyed. The sun sets in the west – I hardly need tell you that – and you’re going to get a strobe effect every evening and with the prevailing wind we’re going to hear these turbines, woop-woop all the time.”

Fisherman Calum Macleod: “I’ve been working these seas all my life, down to the Isle of Man and the Irish Sea. I’ve passed countless turbines and within 200 metres; I’ve yet to hear one.”

Another audience member asked the panel what was the most effective mechanism for registering their opposition in a manner that was likely to have some bearing on the decision-making process. Chairman Angus Macdonald urged residents to get in touch with their local councillors, MP and MSP and list MSPs for the Highlands and Islands.

Mr Crichton said the “hard test” for the proposal will come at the planning stage where opposition can be registered. However, he added: “Right now we don’t know what Northland will actually be applying for.”

Mr Macdonald told the audience that the Crown Estate – who administered the auction process for the Scottish Government – had been told there was “no opposition” to the N4 site and asked the Comhairle nan Eilean Siar representatives why the local authority had been so compliant.

“I’m not too sure,” replied Mr Macleod. “Maybe it came from a belief that the site was further out to sea, but that’s not the case. Maybe if it was further out to sea people would be more supportive but once it was clear it was going to be so much in sight people were against it.”

Speaking from the floor, local resident Donald Urquhart asked what percentage of the company’s profits were £4.5 million a year. While it was impossible for any of the panel to speculate with any authority, there was a general acceptance that it would be a very small percentage.

Solicitor Maggie Mackay said it was a “hard negotiation” which brought together Dalmore Estate, who she was representing, as well as the community owned estates of Carloway, Barvas and Galson.

“Developers never want to talk about community benefit, they’ll sponsor the local football team or small things like that, but not substantial sums of money,” she said. “I think they thought they were going to be dealing with some back-of-water country people, but fortunately we had quite a bit of experience in dealing with renewable energy projects so we were able to secure a substantial community benefit.”

She stressed that the annual £4.5 million was for the communities in the immediate vicinity and a wider Western Isles share would also have to be negotiated.

Alick Stewart felt it was a “done deal in terms of planning – you don’t spend that amount of money without knowing you’re going to get what you want”.

To a round of applause, he added: “I don’t want to hear about community benefit – we don’t want the development. Community benefit means nothing. We don’t want our environment spoiled.”

Councillor Donald MacSween stressed that there needed to be a “Plan B” in the event of the project going ahead. He said that the estates were “neither for or against it” and added: “I’m content with the negotiation we have taken – and that’s what I think as a local resident.”

In the “points for action” to be taken forward, Shawbost Community Council will investigate the potential of commissioning studies to evaluate the impact of the development in terms of noise and health effects on residents and loss of tourism revenue. They will also press Northland to ensure their Environmental Impact Assessment is published in good time for it to be publicly assessed for the formal planning assessment.

As the meeting drew to a close, another member of the audience questioned what was behind the estates agreeing to the £4.5 million sum and what it will mean for Northland, in terms of arguing that community support exists.

Councillor MacSween then revealed he had been, as a result of “misinformation”, the victim of a “death threat” which is now subject to police inquiry.

“Whatever is decided we are still going to be living here and we are still going to have to exist as a community,” he said.

​

Comhairle called for “visibility concerns” to be tested

​

By being relatively close to shore, Spiorad na Mara was an outlier in the ScotWind licensing round run by Crown Estate Scotland which, in effect, operates as a wing of the Scottish Government since being devolved in 2017.

The process of designating sites suitable for offshore wind developments has been going on at least since 2010 when the Scottish Government published a report entitled “Blue Seas: Green Energy”.

At that time and for most of the next decade, the working assumption through various updates published appears to have been that development off the west side of the Hebrides was constrained by the presence of an internationally recognised shipping lane.

A sea area ear-marked for windfarm development, at that time designated NW2, lay to the west of the shipping lane and well north-west of Lewis.

That assumption, however, was not entirely shared by Comhairle nan Eilean Siar which had long been supportive of renewable energy developments and had seen large-scale onshore wind plans thwarted in the early 2000s. It continued to believe that offshore sites west of the islands should be considered.

Finally, in 2018, a consultation was opened on the Scottish Government’s draft plan for offshore wind sites. Comhairle nan Eilean Siar’s response came out strongly in favour of the waters west of the Hebrides being considered.

It stated: “Since the Blue Seas: Green Energy report of 2010, the Comhairle has consistently argued that areas to the West of the Outer Hebrides should be opened up for development.

“The Comhairle was very concerned when the area of search west of Lewis was removed from the following iteration of Marine Planning. However, the Comhairle is pleased to see that area reinstated as one of the least constrained areas in Scottish waters.

“Developer interest in this high resource area is very strong and the Comhairle would ask Marine Scotland to guard against any assumption that development in the area landward of the IMO shipping route would be unacceptable on visual grounds.

“This supposition has not been tested and, with strong community support for marine energy development around the islands, the Comhairle does not feel that visibility of turbines is an issue of concern.

“Also, with 70 per cent plus of the island coastline now in community ownership and the real prospect of Local Authority enabled seabed leases near to shore, Marine Planning should take account of community marine energy projects quite close to shore”.

The Comhairle response elaborated on this by suggesting: “NW2 should be extended shoreward of the IMO shipping route to enable smaller scale commercial and community deployments”.

In summary, the consultation document asked: “Are there areas within Scottish waters that you think should be included in the Areas of Search that are not included in this report?

The Comhairle replied: “Landward of the IMO Shipping Route in the NW2 area. Community reaction to turbine visibility should be tested before this option is disregarded”.

However, when the final ScotWind sites, to be made available for licence bids, were announced by the Scottish Government in 2022, “N4” had appeared off the west side of Lewis with no mention of “smaller scale” or “community deployments”.

Neither, according to critics of the development, was there any testing of “community reaction to turbine visibility” before the licence was granted.

Instead, the Scottish Government pocketed £16.2 million from Northland for the N4 licence – with none of it coming to the Western Isles.