Picnic protest against Viking windfarm

Protesters held a picnic in Upper Kergord on Friday to show their concerns over Viking Energy’s windfarm.

Over 50 folk turned up in the morning and had a picnic next to the site of an access road, which is being built for a large substation linked to the development.

Ofgem’s final approval of the interconnector last week paved the way for this converter station and SSE Renewables’ £580 million 103 turbine scheme.

Placards on show included “Where was our voice”, “Nature not money” and “Wir hills are wir lungs”.

Tour guide Laurie Goodlad, who was there with her family, said: “We are really not happy with what’s going on here.”

She added: “We just want to have a picnic in an area of outstanding beauty.”

Photo: Dave Donaldson.

The scale of the project and lack of community benefit were some of the concerns raised by folk at the picnic.

One picnicker said the “the damage is done”, adding that the windfarm was “simply too big”.

Local construction firm Tulloch Developments, who have been contracted to build the access track, were on-site at the time and police were also present.

COMMENTS(2)

Add Your Comment
  • John Irvine

    • August 7th, 2020 17:23

    Anyone who was or still is in favour of this project obviously has no caring for our wonderful, unique, beautiful islands and wildlife.
    Put simply this will be an environmental disaster and for our islands and people to be exploited in this way is unforgivable.

    REPLY
  • Elaine Falconer

    • August 8th, 2020 18:26

    A catastrophic disaster for Shetland. Our Island will become one massive offshore windfarm causing the residents to move away and the natural beauty and wildlife to be destroyed forever. All under the guise of so called green energy and greed.

    REPLY

Add Your Comment

Please note, it is the policy of The Shetland Times to publish comments and letters from named individuals only. Both forename and surname are required.

Comments are moderated. Contributors must observe normal standards of decency and tolerance for the opinions of others.

The views expressed are those of contributors and not of The Shetland Times.

The Shetland Times reserves the right to decline or remove any contribution without notice or stating reason.

Comments are limited to 200 words but please email longer articles or letters to editorial@shetlandtimes.co.uk for consideration and include a daytime telephone number and your address. If emailing information in confidence please put "Not for publication" in both the subject line and at the top of the main message.

200 words left

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

logo

Get Latest News in Your Inbox

Join the The Shetland Times mailing list to get one daily email update at midday on what's happening in Shetland.