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You'd better watch out Sir Ek, Labour and the Scottish Press will accuse you of having some hidden agenda no matter what you decide. They still have to try and get Wendy off.

No nuclear power. Major wind power scheme to be turned down too? Interesting.

Well said, sir. Visualise the headlines: If it's approved, [bold]'Salmond tramples on the vulnerable little people to aid big business, says Labour's Wendy Alexander.'[/bold] And if it's denied, 'No Lewis wind farm means the lights will go out in Scotland, says Labour's Wendy Alexander'

Wind farms should be built in the sea and quite close to land to enable access to the national grid. The whole of the west coast of the UK is available in my opinion. Lets get on with it!

ok so when he is asked to get involved with other planning problems it is sleaze, what will happen if he gets involved with this?

Has Rhoda been asked to a meeting ? Will she understand why ? Should 'Eck respond to any letter she writes ? ____________________ Visit Scotsgait, Scotland's independent information portal and internet community, and cast your vote on the Lisbon Treaty.

Personally, I'd like to see this called in as they say. Also, I like to see the opposition parties forward their positions rather than waiting to criticize some aspect of whatever the government decides.

No doubt the SNP will sit on the fence on this one and then try and have it both ways. The SNP is no friend of job producing development.

how about if the offshore wind farms were constructed and their bases were also designed to incorporate tidal and wave technology, that would be killing 3 birds with the one stone. The problem is, the wind technology is here today and the wave and tidal is here but is not yet really efficient enough. Wind, tidal and wave farms could then easily be claimed to be marine conservancy and fish protection zones of no fishing.... or will the fishermen be campaigning and complaining.... Oh I forgot, we dont have that many fisherman in Scotland anymore, so the Spaniards would be complaining in Brussels.

This whole project is based on a blatant lie, or, to be more precise, a series of blatant lies. There may be 400 jobs on offer during the construction phase, but most of these jobs will go to people from outwith the islands; probably Poles as they can, and do, exploit them by paying them less than the going rate. As for the alleged 70 ongoing jobs, that is utter rubbish. In the large scheme they built in Wales, there are only 3 full time ongoing jobs, and only one of them has gone to a local. The people in the islands will not benefit in any way from the construction of these monstrosities. They will not get a halfpenny extra in their pocket, and they will not get cheaper electricity. The power from this scheme will be sold to England, and the profits will go to foreigners also. These towers will be 487 feet high, and the proposal was for 187 of them spread out over an area the size of greater London. They will be blight on the landscape, and will not even be able to be utilised for a high percentage of the time because the winds will be too strong for them to operate. Ignoring the numpties in the Comhairle, the majority of the people (90%)do not want, or need to have these monstrosities despoiling their island, especially when they will have no benefit from them. There is a lot to be said for bringing back annual elections for councils, otherwise these overpaid and underworked numpties will continue to do things against the wishes of the people. They should also remember that the church will not protect them, or ensure their re-election forever. If they want to increase the population and the economy of the islands, the only way is to have Sunday ferries, and Road Equivalent Tariff (RET) on the ferries. Not by blighting the landscape for the benefit of foreigners.

Brian (Windy) Wilson will benefit from his share in Windmill (and Nuclear) companies that share his interest in Scotland being British, as is Scotland's surplus energy capacity.

Brian (Windy) Wilson will benefit from his share in Windmill (and Nuclear) companies that share his interest in Scotland being British, as is Scotland's surplus energy capacity.

Brian (Windy) Wilson will benefit from his share in Windmill (and Nuclear) companies that share his interest in Scotland being British, as is Scotland's surplus energy capacity.

Brian (Windy) Wilson will benefit from his share in Windmill (and Nuclear) companies that share his interest in Scotland being British, as is Scotland's surplus energy capacity.

Not convinced that you are right about 90% Guga. I reckon on 30:30 - with 40% confused or undecided. I hope the Government allow a scaled-back development of some kind. If it was up to RSPB and SNH, you might as well think back to St Kilda and begin preparing for evacuation now.

Guga raises a number of valid points - the main one being that any jobs provided by Amec and at the Arnish Fabrication Yard would be grabbed by Eastern Europeans, not the locals. A scaled down application would seem to be a fair compromise - going some way to placating the 'white settlers' who have been doing most of the complaining, and keeping the Councillors on the Comhairle reasonably content by providing jobs for the island, albeit for Poles, Lithuanians etc.!

The SNP have been caught out here. They are only playing lip service to the Green energy question. No nucluear, no wind - where are they getting all their electricity from - are they building a wind turbine in front of Alex Salmonds mouth???

[quote][bold]Proud to be Scottish[/bold] wrote: No doubt the SNP will sit on the fence on this one and then try and have it both ways. The SNP is no friend of job producing development. [/quote] And no doubt you and your like will jump on the bandwagon and cry "It's called corruption" if they intervene in the interests of the Scottish people. You might be proud to be Scottish, but you shopuld be ashamed of your childishly bitter and ill-informed posts.

The company involved, hand in-hand with the last unlamented MSP thought they could wave a few promises at us and we would roll over and let them destroy our quality of life. Anyone who has viewed the mock-up of this huge development on TV must immediately notice that the siting of these enormous structures are almost entirely right on top of the villages. It is this lack of any consideration for the natives more than anything which has resulted in the total rejection of the project.Lewis is a large island which could support wind farms if the planners put them in the right places, however they came up with the cheapest option utilising existing roads,and alienated everyone. The whole project needs to go back to the drawingboard. We are not rampant NIMBY's here we just won't sacrifice our entire quality of life for a few quid.

Donald, it pains me to suggest this, but have you thought about investing in a new keyboard? You can get a decent one for less than £10 you know. Other than that perhaps you don't know you only have to click 'post comment' ONCE.

I have no political axe to grind and I have no doubt that they are out to fill their own pockets and so many who write here seem to wish to share in these. The questions are how, when and where are we to get the power I want for my family and community so that we can live a fairly normal life? No doubt the politicians with over generous slaries, ministerial cars, handouts will take care of themselves and their hangers-on but what about most of us?

Anyone with a p.c. only has to search for something like "European wind resource atlas" to see why wind energy has been referred to as Scotland's answer to Saudi Arabia's oil. It's better than that, of course, because it won't run out. As "westcider" said "Lewis is a large island which could support wind farms if the planners put them in the right places". The thing is, would you rather have a wind farm on Lewis or a nuclear station? Or a coal, gas or oil one? I suppose the thing about renewable energy projects on Lewis is that you can have them [italic]and[/italic] wave power stations like the LIMPET device on Islay. Perhaps an ideal situation would be for the islanders to buy their [italic][bold]own[/bold] [/italic] wind and wave plants and sell power to the national grid. Makes me rather envious, to be honest.

"subrosa": I think Donald's problem is actually to do with the mechanics of this board. Often you click "Post comment", only to be told "You must enter the code number" (when you've already done so). So you do that again and "Post". Then you're told to put your e-mail address in (etc.). Anyway, people in glass houses and all that. Proper nouns start with capital letters, so that'll be "Subrosa", will it?

[quote]Tilting at Windmills?[/quote] So, lots of Companies are in a great hurry to stick up Wind farms? Would there be such a rush if there were no Government subsidies? If the answer is no then we know that Wind farms like Nuclear Power stations before them are simply NOT COST effective. In other words, this will just another handout by New Labour to it's friends win Big Business. Oh, and for the benefit of any Labour supporters who haven't noticed it yet, New Labour are far to the right of even the Thatcher regime.

I think that real time generation from intermittent renewable energy resources is a BIG mistake. Counting up random MWh from daft windmills and claiming that these will [bold][italic]replace[/italic][/bold] nuclear and other thermal generating plants' outputs is laughable... who, but the most intellectually challenged, believes this tripe. All the hype surrounding renewable energy is used to hide the sad truth that there is no long term future for intermittent systems in a modern world where only secure 24/7 power supplies is good enough. My invention Gentec venturi will supply secure base load electricity 24/7 at full capacity from tidal stream across each and every lunar month - is there anything out there that comes close? (BTW some genius poster thought that, because I share my initials with AM2 - I must be him. I wonder how may thousands have the same initials as I have in Scotland?)

Took a trip yesterday to tinyurl.com/28hc57 No noise...impressive.. .almost awe-inspiring.

Although I can fully understand the concerns of the locals in barvas and the rest of lewis, I have often thought that the hebrides have not been as far sighted as their counterparts in the northern isles. There were objections on Shetland when North Sea oil was the issue but the islands negotiated a cut of the profits which were then used to the prosperity of the area and which has continued to benefit that area to this day. The hebrides have an abundance of nature, not least wind, which has often been a force of destruction there. I am unclear as to why the proposed wind farm has to be so close to local villages, but other than that I feel that the hebrides should grab the chance to capitalise on the fact that we are at the forefront of harnessing nature to provide some of our energy needs. If this opportunity is thrown away other areas will be happy to take their place (maybe even the northern isles). The wildlife in the hebrides is enormously important and should be protected, but time cannot stand still, not even in the islands. Surely it would be better for the islanders and their representatives to lead any changes that will come instead of blowing with the wind at the mercy of big business and polititians. In the end we still want communities on the island or the danger is that all that will be left to admire the beauty of the islands will be the wildlife,like on the island of Rhum.

We need constant power production and wind farms just don't supply this. Wind farms are not only a blight on our beautiful Scottish landscape they are not the answer. Alex Salmond was a fool to say no to Nuclear Power. The Nuclear industry supplies constant reliable electricity not to mention 100s of jobs which are secured. The nuclear waste is an issue but do people realise that the Army and Hospitals also add to the nuclear waste issue and no one ever complains about this. Electricity is a necessity in life and it's not until you suffer power cuts that you realise how much we rely on it. I wish the Scottish office would stop namby pambying around and secure our future electricity needs.

as far as I am concerned all these renewable so called energy projects all being refused makes me believe that the scottish government is not interested in carbon free energy. it is still hooked on co2 producing oil and has no interest in global warming

Island Girl is right. The islands have a major resource in wind and wave but if they do not develop the wind then they will not be able to develop the wave either as their will be no subsea cable. Population decline will continue and it WILL be the Northern Isles that cash in. Shetland is already planning a 600MW wind farm and Orkney is looking to a wave and tidal future were they can tap into the cable that will be put in place to bring the wind power from Shetland. If it is left to the older'life stylers' in the Western Isles to dictate what is best for the islands then their will be no economic development at all. They mostly moved there for the quiet life and the view. The prospects for young families are not going to sway their decision and the downward population spiral will continue. Almost 7% in 2006, one of the highest population declines in Scotland. The islands need jobs, and large numbers of them, to turn this around. What else is on offer for the Western Isles if not renewable energy. The Stornoway Trust (owned by the community) stand to make millions out of the wind farm which will be ploughed back into community project for further job creation. The Lewis project will breath life back into the Arnish Yard and allow it to compete in the UK offshore wind turbine tower market which will continue up until 2020 and beyond at whcih point wave and tidal projects will take over and offer further work for the yard. The UK is planning to deploy 25GW of offshore wind, thats about 40 projects the size of the Lewis Wind farm not to mention the rest of the European market. Make no mistake, 180 turbines on Lewis will not be pretty but neither will the islands future without this catalyst for future long term development. The Scottish Goverment have the ability to make this happen now as the decision lies with the Energy Minister under a Section 36 consent. If the answer is no what do they offer the future children of Lewis as a potential career that will allow them to live in the land of their birth? Tour guides on the moor? When, if yes, it could be jobs delivering Scotland's alternative to nuclear energy for 2020 and beyond.

I have written to Alex Salmond pointing out a newly identified problem related to wind farm mechanical vibrations. These could destroy peat bog and the flora and fauna around them over considerable distances, with significant costs to taxpayer and business interests This matter is now under consideration by the Scottish Parliament Petitions Committee, which will decide on action March 18 To approve the Lewis proposals would be playing Russian Roulette until this new risk has been properly assessed zenminky@clara.co.uk

A few facts you might not know about the proposed windfarm on Lewis. The farm was to be built on one of the largest areas of peat in europe. The peat bog is a natural, renewable carbon sink absorbing huge amounts of co2 from the atmosphere. In order to build the wind farms millions of tonnes of peat would be removed for concrete foundations. This would release large amounts of stored co2 into the air. The cement to make the foundations would give off huge amounts of co2 during the curing process. Over 350 lorry movements per day would also contribute to the co2 footprint of this huge development not to mention the co2 involved in manufacture. Several of the studies now published actually quote a negative saving of CO2, i.e a net production of co2 for this scheme. None of the electricity would be used on Lewis instead it is proposed to ship it off island to South of England. In the process 25% would be lost due to heat loss. The islanders were overwhelmingly against this scheme with 88% voting against in local referenda and 5000 of the 25000 population writing to the Scottish Goverment in protest. They are however overwhemlingly in favour of small local schemes to produce energy to be used on Lewis. Before you accuse us of being nimby's remember Lewis is an island. The amec development plus the others proposed would leave a 40 mile trail of the largest wind turbines in Eurpoe stretching from the North of Island to the South. The island would be completely dominated by these enormous structures most of which were to be built near residents houses and not as often thought on bog miles from anywhere. Unlike mainlanders the island residents would have no easy way of taking a break or getting relief from these huge machines. It currently costs over £200 to take a car and family off island or £150 per person to fly. The worry is that large numbers of islanders would sell up and leave. The work argument also holds little sway. The Western Isles as a whole has a little over 500 unemployed. Very few of these are the skilled workers required for the construction of the scheme. So most workers would be brought in from the mainland for the three years it would take to build. Boom and bust? Lewis has a fledgling tourist economy which is now growing at a healthy 7% per year. This is fed by our remotness, isolation and unspoilt beauty. Our tourism industry, fast becoming the lifeblood of our island, would be decimated and the compensation would be minimal. There is no good argument yet put forward for this scheme and as the Scottish Goverment said in it's letter to AMEC 'there are other more appropriate areas to build this project in Scotland." Lewis, a natural carbon sink, and the jewel in the crown of Scotlands Natural Heritage is definately not one of them.