A LONG-SERVING Tory MSP who is stepping down from Holyrood has suffered a blow after rejection of a wind farm development on his land cost him a deal worth £8 million.
Sir Jamie McGrigor, who has been MSP for the Highlands and Islands Region since 1999 and is his party's environment spokesman, had struck a lucrative agreement with developer RWE Innogy which wanted to build a 45-megawatt wind farm on his sprawling 3500-acre Ardchonnel estate at the east of Loch Awe.
The plans were strongly opposed by many of Sir Jamie's neighbours and were thrown out by Argyll and Bute Council due to fears over the impact on the landscape, but RWE appealed to the Scottish Government which has the power to overturn the decision.
But it ruled that the proposed 15-turbine windfarm on the Tory grandee's land would not be going ahead, after a Government reporter, Dan Jackman, backed the council's decision. He said that the project would create "unacceptable significant adverse landscape and visual effects" and that concerns expressed by the council, Scottish Natural Heritage and some other objectors were "well founded".
Irene McClounnan, secretary of the social club in the nearby village of Dalavich, and a fierce opponent of the windfarm, said residents were "over the moon" at the outcome.
She said: "The whole place is just clapping their hands. All our hard work paid off. I think Sir Jamie will be keeping a low profile around here."
Sir Jamie, an Old Etonian baronet, is likely to be rather less pleased with the ruling. According to the agreement he struck, he would have received £7,000 a year "base rent" for each megawatt of installed capacity, meaning £315,000 a year for the 45MW which is planned, plus extra cash if the wind farm generates above expectation. Index-linked over the 25-year lifetime of the turbines, the income would have been expected to top £8m.
RWE Innogy said it was "very disappointed" that the project would not be going ahead, claiming it would have helped hit renewable energy targets and would have been worth £200,000 a year to the local community.
Sir Jamie, who has been known to perform at folk festivals under the stage name 'the Midnight Shepherd', announced last month that he would not be seeking re-election in May.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel