There is local concern in the villages of Avich and Kilchrenan on west Loch Awe from the disclosure that public money – through the Scottish Government’s Strategic Timber Transport Fund, is to be used to pay towards a forest access road to a windfarm.
Carraig Gheal, or Green Power, is the developer proposing a 20 turbine windfarm at a forest site in the forest on the west side of Loch Awe, to the east of Oban.
To aid planning consent for the venture, the company had offered funding towards a dual purpose haul road, offering construction and maintenance access to the windfarm site and to timber transport out of the forest.
Forest Enterprise was happy with the proposed collaboration and consent for the 35km West Loch Awe Timber Haul Route (WLATHR – the most useless acronym we’ve seen) was granted to the partnership.
The cost of the haul road was estimated at around £5.3 million. The Strategic Timber Transport Fund, though, is now to pay £1 million of that cost.
Local residents are happy with the building of the road as it will take timber and construction traffic off the narrow public roads on west Loch Awe. The villages of Ford, Inverinan, Dalavich and Kilchrenan will not now see something like 4,200 timber trucks a year coming trundling through them – which would be 12 trucks a day.
Nevertheless, locals are questioning the use of public money towards this road and the nature of the arrangements made around its payment.
Avich and Kilchrenan Community Council has used Freedom of Information legislation to lodge a request with Forestry Commission Scotland for material which may clarify whether wind farm revenue will contribute to the cost of the road. They are concerned that the developer will definitely pay the agreed contribution.
They feel that the road is likely to have to be a higher specification than a timber haul road and therefore cost more.
In response, Forestry Commission Scotland says that the £5.3m construction cost will be made up of contributions from several sources, with the distinctly major one coming from the developer.
- £4,104,000 from Green Power
- £1m from the Strategic Timber Transport Fund (£150,000 of which will be ‘in kind’
- £210,000 in kind from Forest Enterprise Scotland
- £62,000 ‘in kind’ from Argyll & Bute Council.
With this distribution of financial contributions, the developer is clearly not ducking out of the offer made and, given that it will be a dual purpose haul road, the contributions coming from the the other sources are modest enough and justifiable.
Even if the haul road does require a higher specification than the traditionally doughty and well built timber haul roads, the scale and percentage of the developer’s contribution should allay any concerns that is interests are being paid for by the taxpayer.
The Forestry Commission is a non-ministerial department and a GB-wide operation. It reports to the relevant minister in each of Scotland, Wales and England.
Its post devolution structure enables it to support and deliver the individual policies of the respective governments while maintaining a broad spectrum view on cross-border issues.
Devolution was engaged immediately and constructively by the Forestry Commission, which is generally perceived as an energetic and responsive organisation.
Argyll is also, at 40%, the single largest element of the Scottish Forest Estate and the single largest harvester of timber.
In the light of these facts, the contribution to this haul road from the public purse is hardly extreme.
Lynda Henderson
I was intrigued when this haul road was first proposed, as it’s a very long way indeed from the access off the A816 Lochgilphead-Oban road, about a kilometre and a half north of the Ford (Loch Awe roads) junction, to the windfarm site – but it’s clearly a reflection of the real unsuitability of the Loch Awe roads for wind farm construction traffic. As it is, the first section of the ‘back road’ from Dalavich to Kilmelford has had to be rebuilt or bypassed to cope with timber haulage, and the new windfarm road appears to follow the route of a main forestry haul road that’s been planned for many years, so if the wind farm industry can pay the main share all to the well and good. As for whether wind farm roads are more costly than forestry roads, the access from the A83 north of Auchindrain up to the An Suidhe windfarm appears very similar to a main forestry haul road; perhaps tight bends have to be wider, but that appears to be the only difference.
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