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Low Impact: "a site to inform debate about the Highland Light and Power Company's plans for a hydroelectric scheme in the Shieldaig and Flowerdale forests"

21 Feb 2002: Telegraph article

Wild Land News no 52, Spring 2001

Hydro-Electric Schemes

Article

Richard Gilbert reports on another major threat to Wester Ross

Visitors to the Highlands cannot fail to notice the effect of hydro-electric schemes on the environment. The ugly drawdown scars on Lochs Cluanie, Glascarnoch, Quoich and Laggan to mention just a few, the pylons, overhead wires, concrete dams, weirs, bifurcation channels, turbine houses, access roads, towers housing sluice gate valves, iron pipes strung out across hillsides and depressing dried up river beds.

In the stampede for cheap power at any cost even the magnificently grand glens and lochs did not escape as Affric, Strathfarrar, Mullardoch, Fannaich, Luichart and Lyon were plundered.

Now, after fifty years, the power companies are returning, hoping to squeeze a few more megawatts from the rivers and lochs which had previously been considered uneconomic. It is the government's promise to pay twice the normal price for power generated from renewable sources that has stimulated the recent activity.

In the 1980s hydro-electric schemes were mooted for the splendid Grudie and Talladale rivers which rush down into Loch Maree from Flowerdale. Vehement opposition caused the schemes to be abandoned.

Ten years later plans were published for the damming of Loch a' Bhraoin in the Fannaichs but, again, the developers climbed down. However, this could have been part of an overall softening up process for, in 1999, Scottish and Southern Energy published plans for diverting the Cuileag river, which drains Loch a'Bhraoin, into pipes at the point where it plunges down a spectacular gorge to the Ullapool river below the NTS's showpiece, the Corrieshalloch Gorge. There was pathetically little opposition to this scheme which passed through the hands of the various planning authorities with scarcely a murmur. As I write trees are being felled, concrete is being poured and a turbine house is being constructed.

Meanwhile the Shieldaig forest, that primeval area of rivers and lochs which includes the impressive Corbett of Baosbheinn and is overlooked by Beinn Alligin, Liathach and Beinn Dearg, was fighting for its life. Highland Light and Power submitted plans for a hydro-electric scheme involving the damming of three lonely lochs: Loch Gaineamhach, Loch a'Ghobhainn and Loch a' Bhealaich plus the usual turbine houses, pylons, bifurcation, access roads and drawdown. In addition to their unique landscape qualities these lochs are the breeding ground for the rare Black Throated Diver. The scheme was to produce at best a measly 2.1 MW of power.

The Scottish Minister sent this scheme to Public Inquiry which was held in Gairloch in September 1997. It was opposed by SNH, Highland Council, MC of S and several individuals including myself and Robert Aitken. It took the reporter, Mr Penman, three years of deliberation before approaching his final recommendations. The opposition was confidently expecting success when Highland Light and Power suddenly withdrew their application.

HLP would not have wanted the result of the Inquiry to set a precedent for the future, but by their withdrawal they wasted a huge sum of money from the public purse and the pockets of hard pressed conservation and environment organisations.

Late last year HLP leaked plans for a new, even more ambitious, scheme expanding the area to include the wild and lonely Loch na h-Oidhche in the Flowerdale Forest. This would be the largest hydro-scheme seen in Britain since 1952. At a meeting with Gairloch Community Council HLP tried to offer financial incentives to the community for their support.

There is very little that anyone can do to oppose the scheme until the plans are published. Then the public has just five weeks in which to protest to Scottish Executive.

The previous scheme for Shieldaig Forest was sent to Public Inquiry on the strength of 300 protest letters from the public. It is absolutely essential to recruit as much opposition as possible and to get them ready to bombard the Minister with letters when the time is ripe. The Minister has three choices open to him:

• To sanction the plans.
• To send the plans to another Public Inquiry.
• To veto the plans.

I would ask all members of the SWLG to make a list of people who might be prepared to write in and to ask each of these people to do likewise. By this method we could get a thousand or more letters sent to the Minister.

The MC of S web site will publish the plans as soon as they are announced. If members could keep a regular eye on this site they will get the maximum amount of notice. The site is: www.mountaineering-scotland.org.uk

I would like to think that the Shieldaig / Flowerdale scheme is one that every member of SWLG will oppose with the utmost commitment. In the same way that Friends of the Lake District routed BNFL at Public Inquiry in the 1980s to preserve the integrity of Wastwater and Ennerdale Water let us, the SWLG, convince the Minister that we will not allow HLP to destroy one of the very last areas of wild and beautiful land in Britain. This is a battle that we must win.

Consider a few points:

1. If Shieldaig / Flowerdale is lost to the developers there will be a green light for hydro-schemes on many of the great rivers of the North West. The Gruinard, Ewe, Dundonnell, Traligill, Kirkaig, Inver, Laxford, Dionard etc.
2. If such a scheme was proposed for the Lake District, Yorkshire Dales, Dartmoor, Peak District or North Wales there would be a public outcry so damaging to the government that they could not allow it.
3. The wild places of North America, where they have infinitely greater areas of wild land, are protected by draconian restrictions on camping, fishing, trail walking, parking etc. There is no way that damaging hydro-schemes would be allowed.
4. The quality of the hill country of Wester Ross has no price. It is outrageous that laws permit it to be up for grabs by the highest bidder. Wester Ross has been put forward as a future National Park, it would be a travesty to destroy it before meaningful protection is bestowed.
5. HLP have lost all credibility by their actions over the previous planning application.
6. I cannot believe it is the government's intention that the extra guaranteed fee for power should encourage the destruction of one of Scotland's finest assets.
7. If the new scheme goes ahead it will generate only a miniscule amount of power and provide only one permanent job.
8. NPPG 6 (National Planning Policy Guideline No 6) from Scottish Executive states that "Renewable energy resources could more easily be developed in the Central Belt or Southern Scotland on sites close to large centres of population. The power would more likely come from wind generators and biogas plants." Scottish Executive must be held to this.

The address to write to is: Minister of the Environment, Scottish Executive, Victoria Quay, Edinburgh, EH6 6QQ

If anyone wishes to write to me or send an E-mail my address is: Stac Polly, Crayke, York. YO61 4TB. rgilbert@supanet.com