WIND Turbines Approved Near Bay Because Everyone Looks The Other Way

Tuesday, 21 February 2012 |

PERMISSION has been given for three 90ft wind turbines to be built on hillside clearly visible from an Inverclyde beauty spot.

Ardgowan Estate applied to put up the 20-kilowatt turbines at Underheugh about 260-metres from Cloch Road, between Gourock and Inverkip, near Lunderston Bay.

No objections were received and planners received a letter of support from Cardwell Garden Centre, which is about 500 metres from the site, saying it intends to buy electricity generated from the turbines.

The site is within Clyde Muirshiel Park. The park manager advised that the turbines would be clearly visible from around 2,000 metres of shore path in the Lunderston Bay area. They would also be seen from most of the car park, the grassy recreational area and the beach.

The park manager concluded though that the development did not present “significant negative landscape and visual impacts.”
Inverclyde Council’s head of regeneration and planning, Stuart Jamieson, in his report about the application said it is expected that the turbines will break the skyline when viewed from Lunderston Bay. But he added that the focus for visitors to the bay is in the opposite direction across the Clyde estuary and this meant the impact was not adverse enough to justify refusal.

Argyll and Bute Council were consulted and said that, although the turbines are likely to be visible from Dunoon, they are “relatively modest in scale” and will not breach the skyline. They would have only “moderate visual impact” at distances of 2.5 to 3.5 kilometres.

The Argyll and Bute response continues: “While we would have some concern at the continuing urbanization of the hillside on the eastern side of the Firth of Clyde, we would raise no objection to this particular application.”