Katharine Hay meets farmers in Scotland's Wind Farm Alley as she continues her walking tour of Scotland. This time she is in Dumfries and Galloway.
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00:00 [Music]
00:19 Hi, my name's Catherine. I'm the Rural Affairs Correspondent at the Scotsman.
00:23 I'm currently on a walking trip around Scotland
00:27 and I've got to a place which is locally known as Wind Farm Alley,
00:33 which is between Newloose and Bar Hill in Dunfries and Galloway.
00:37 And I've just been walking up through the valley.
00:41 I came across some local farmers in the area who were happy to share their view with me
00:46 on their thoughts about the money that comes from the wind farm companies
00:52 and just the visual impact and environmental impact of having these turbines on the land surrounding their homes.
00:58 Do you all work on the land around here as you're the farmer?
01:01 Yes, in Newloose.
01:04 And there's a community committee that organises the money that they get from the wind farm.
01:11 They built a renovated hotel in Newloose with wind farm money.
01:18 And what about as a farmer? Do you benefit? Do they give you some money for using your land?
01:25 No, we don't get any. There's none on our land.
01:28 But there's land going us round about, it's compensated, and they get an annual rental.
01:35 It'll be a percentage.
01:37 And if the tenants are on that land, the landlord gets about 80% and the tenant gets about 20%,
01:45 roughly anyway, between 20 and 30%.
01:49 And you were saying earlier you don't mind the visual impact?
01:52 No, I think they're just graceful and nice to see in the morning,
01:56 to get a good direction from where the wind's coming from.
02:00 It's getting us away from oil anyway.
02:03 It's the future, I think, which is we have to go with it, the wind power.
02:09 I mean, it's the air and it's free.
02:12 I think more than a fifth of Scotland's wind power is just in that valley.
02:18 Do you feel it's a bit excessive, the amount?
02:21 There's quite a lot of windmills.
02:23 That's where they should be. There's no population up there.
02:26 That's where they should be.
02:28 Out on the sea, yeah. That's it.
02:30 We've got very few protesters because we're so underpopulated.
02:35 It's bringing money into the area too for coffees and various other things.
02:42 We're maybe a wee bit overloaded with them.
02:46 How long have you lived here?
02:48 Eh, 50, 60 years.
02:51 So?
02:52 There was none then. None at all.
02:56 Have you noticed the money coming in, does it help the towns?
03:02 Not personally, no.
03:05 But as far as these villages, all the villages are benefiting from them.
03:11 I mean, the buildings, they've helped to do up all buildings and stuff.
03:19 Yeah, I saw the village square.
03:21 Community hubs, things like that, they have benefited.
03:26 So you're not too worried about them?
03:28 No, not at all.
03:30 [no audio]
03:45 I'm going to head to New Luce to talk to some residents there,
03:49 to hear their views on wind farms being put up in this part of the country.
03:54 I think what makes it different to other areas, but similar to some as well,
03:58 is just the number of wind farms and wind turbines in this area.
04:03 There's probably, well, someone said there's over 500 turbines,
04:08 which is not a huge area,
04:11 and there's at least three applications, I think, for more just at the moment.
04:18 So, yeah, I'm going to speak with some residents in New Luce,
04:22 which is just at the foot of this place called Wind Farm Alley.
04:26 [no audio]
04:46 The village had the hotel as an asset,
04:53 and when the previous owners left,
04:57 the place shut down for basically four to five years.
05:02 And with the wind farms that were surrounding the area,
05:08 there was a community benefit fund that was set up.
05:12 A lot of the money comes from the SPR, Scottish Power Renewables,
05:18 and it was through the community trust that they were able to access this money.
05:26 And then with their help and help from a couple of other funds,
05:32 we purchased the building and renovated it, totally renovated it.
05:38 It was stripped right back to being a bare stone shell.
05:43 And, well, now you see the results of the labours.
05:48 It took about 18 months to do,
05:51 and we've got a beautiful building now, which is well used.
05:56 The New Luce Community Trust has been held up by Scottish Power Renewables
06:03 as an excellent, good practice of using community funds
06:12 for the benefit of the community.
06:15 And how much did it take to restore this building?
06:19 I think all told it was about £1.1 million,
06:23 including purchase and renovation fees.
06:27 But as you can see, we've got a tremendous asset,
06:30 which will last for the next 200 years, hopefully.
06:35 Long after I'm gone.
06:38 I have been asking everyone this, I saw a model of this area in Newsham Stewart,
06:44 and it's quite a lot of turbines already, and I know that bigger ones are on their way.
06:49 Does it worry you a little bit that it might be a bit excessive at any point?
06:53 Because I know over a fifth of Scotland's, I think, turbines are just in this little bit.
06:58 Again, depending on who you speak to, you'll get a different response.
07:03 Some people don't mind them, other people say we've had enough.
07:08 And I can understand that, because as we come over the road from Castle Kennedy,
07:15 all you see in about a 270-degree arc is wind turbines.
07:21 And I can see where it does impact on the visual look of the area.
07:30 But there again, you have to weigh up the pros and cons of it.
07:35 It's a curse, but it's also a blessing for communities.
07:40 So you've just got to weigh up the two.
07:43 We're actually surrounded by them.
07:45 You start off, you look over towards Port Patrick, we start there,
07:48 you come over here, you've got them up the back there towards where the dam is,
07:53 Glenwillie and all that up there, right across, right round the back on the southern upland way.
07:58 You dug that up and removed it, and then it comes right across.
08:04 So we're actually surrounded.
08:06 About 500, I reckon. Easy.
08:09 So do you feel, as you said, it was a bribe, the kind of community benefit?
08:13 Yes, just so that the community doesn't go, "We don't want them, we've got enough."
08:19 There's a bit of an uprising over in the borders and places like that,
08:23 and further up country towards Dumfries, where the plan of permission is getting refused now
08:29 because the communities have just had enough of it.
08:32 It's about looking at ways where we actually do get some sustained benefit out of it
08:37 instead of the odd little bribe here and there.
08:40 How divided is the village, do you think? Is it kind of 50/50?
08:43 I think the agricultural side of the village, the farming community,
08:48 that gets benefits out of it for having it on their land, I think that's a wonderful thing.
08:53 But like, you know, I like myself that doesn't have one in my garden.
09:01 I dare say if I was getting a good bit of money every year because it stuck to my back garden,
09:07 I might go, "Oh yeah, I can save the benefit of that."
09:10 But as it is in the village, we don't really get any benefit other than things we maybe don't want.
09:17 The thing is, I mean, it's like, you know, we've got the pub out of it and the community benefit,
09:21 so that's great. It doesn't benefit me, but of course, then of course, they didn't think it through.
09:27 So we now got added parking in the street and everyone's at each other's throat now trying to get park
09:32 because we've got people coming for meals and stay in the weekend,
09:35 and because you can't get park when you come home, it's like, "Oh, bloody pub."
09:39 [TRAFFIC]
09:44 [WIND]
09:48 I just wanted to come and talk to people there who are like actually next to it.
09:52 Does it bother you at all?
09:54 Well, we are... it's the benefits probably outweigh the disadvantages for the actual farm
10:01 because, you know, these sheds were all run down, but with the money that...
10:05 Well, that one's been replaced.
10:07 With the money that the owner got.
10:09 The income from them.
10:11 The income that he got, he was able to get new steading.
10:15 And it has benefited other ways. I mean, there's roads through the farm now,
10:19 which makes it easier for accessing.
10:24 To start with, it was a bit strange, but after six or seven months, you get used to it.
10:31 But no, I think because they give funding to the communities,
10:36 which is probably a bit of a bribe, really, it is good because, I mean,
10:40 the wee community, they struggle to get anything.
10:44 And it has opened... they bought the pub and they've opened it up,
10:49 and the guy that's running it is a really good chef.
10:52 Again, we get certain allowances for the community fund.
10:55 We get a £200 heating allowance for everyone that's in the parish in Ulus,
11:00 and we get a taxi card every year, £140.
11:06 £150.
11:07 So £150 on it, which, again, I mean, you're helping local taxis if you can...
11:13 you know, if you're using it.
11:15 So, I mean, there is a lot of benefits.
11:19 And apart from the, like, the new Ulus area, there's also Kilgallic...
11:26 That's called Kilgallic Wind Farm.
11:28 And there's KCBC, which is Kilgallic Community Benefit Fund,
11:32 and it oversees the whole of that, which is about £1.2 million, I think,
11:38 or £1.4 million.
11:40 Is that a year?
11:42 Yep.
11:43 Right.
11:44 And it's for all... any businesses in the local area,
11:49 outwith the core communities can apply for funding for it.
11:54 And you see...
11:55 I've been to the director on it, and it's amazing the number of, you know,
11:59 different charities that are benefiting.
12:01 Small charities and stuff, you know, that is benefiting outwith the actual...
12:04 that don't see the windmills, probably.
12:07 So it has been good.
12:09 And the kind of ground it is here, you know, it's quite sparsely populated,
12:15 so the people that are negatively affected, there's not too many of them,
12:19 you know, compared to maybe other areas.
12:23 The thing I don't like is the shadow flicker.
12:27 We don't get it in the house very often, just very occasionally,
12:30 and it's only early in the morning for a few seconds.
12:35 That's not particularly nice, and I think it's the house further up
12:38 that maybe gets bothered with it more.
12:40 I don't know.
12:42 So that wouldn't be great.
12:43 Sometimes they're quite noisy, but it's not a bad noise.
12:46 It's more like a whooshing sound.
12:49 Yeah.
12:50 [wind blowing]
13:06 My experience walking through Wind Farm Alley from Newloose to Barhill,
13:12 yeah, the number of individual turbines has been very noticeable.
13:18 There's a lot of clusters of these wind turbines all over.
13:23 Everywhere you walk, you can see them.
13:25 So I can understand why people feel they're imposing.
13:31 It's very beautiful, this valley, and there's a lot of bird life.
13:36 You can hear oyster catcher, curlew, skylarks.
13:39 It seems to be pretty alive with birds.
13:42 So hopefully that means the birds are coping and living alongside the moque
13:46 rather than feeling pushed away.
13:48 I understand some of the wind farms have been here for over 20 years now.
13:55 It just does feel a little excessive that they've got, I think,
13:59 another three proposed for the area.
14:04 But, again, I spoke to some farmers who live around in the hills, in the valley,
14:11 and they weren't phased, and that includes farmers
14:14 who aren't getting money from wind farms because they don't have any on their land.
14:19 They're just simply around them.
14:23 And other residents have said that the money is bringing them,
14:28 which they wouldn't be getting otherwise if it was, say, from the Scottish government.
14:33 The benefits are outweighing the negatives.
14:37 But talking to campaign group Hands Off Far Hills,
14:40 who are fiercely fighting against the next proposals for some wind farms
14:48 near Newton Stewart and near Galloway Forest Park,
14:52 they have a lot of reasons and they've raised a lot of questions
14:56 over just wind farms in general.
14:58 Are they good for the land?
15:00 Are there environmental implications?
15:02 Like, is there a reason why we might be having more flooding
15:06 because they're not great up on the hill for helping keep water up on the hill?
15:11 There's a bull, and I just heard a bit of a stampede.
15:25 And, anyway, luckily they're running in a different direction,
15:28 but I honestly thought they were just coming for me.
15:31 [wind blowing]