I Am Turning Into Donald Trump

Doon frae Troon

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I used to think that wind turbines were a tolerable solution to our power problems.

I live near a picturesque village called Straiton.
The residents have discovered that no less than five companies have identified six sites surrounding their village.
Planning/scoping proposals are for 130 turbines. These turbines are taller than the London Eye with a wing span larger than a Jumbo Jet.
The area seems totally inappropriate to planning on this scale. Once planning applications are lodged with our council the village has 28 days to lodge objections. Under present planning regulations a developer could place a turbine within a wedge shot from your property.

This seems totally wrong in all ways. I am not a nimby as I will not be directly affected where I live.


Please take the time to listen to the enclosed utube clip. The Barr wind farms are 12 miles from Straiton.
It takes 10 minutes but could be time well spent if you think turbines are OK


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrNYwpIqDsU

http://savestraitonforscotland.com/
 
Without knowing many of you will have seen parts of the Straiton countryside and Blairquan Castle.

They were used in the scenes from the Helen Mirren film 'The Queen.' Blairquan was Balmoral.

The Richard Grant football comedy film 'The Match' was also based at Straiton
 
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interesting Mr Trump i live a bout 1 mile away from the ardrossan windfarm and im convinced the noise that keeps me awake at nite is from them. even had the noise police in at 3am one nite but they cudnt hear it. i reckon i have really really good hearing.
used to go to straiton to visit relatives .
 
Saw the thread title and thought the OP was turning into a syrup wearing, billionaire playboy, with a penchant for owning quality golf courses and the occaisional flirtation with arrogance on a stellar level.

Oh well never mind guess I should have read the thread first! As for wind power don't think it makes enough noise to keep people awake, that's just from heating what friends have said that live right next to one on the kent coast.

But agreed with MegaSteve we need to look at nuclear power as accept its the most logical way forward.
 
I can empathise with you.I have a wee holiday home near Gatehouse on the Solway Firth, we've been opposed to it for a while.It's not as severe as your case, but the siting of these things are an issue...the muckle wind afrm before the beef tub coming into Moffat has changed the landscape, but it's not located near any significant residential area as far as I know?


We need to untwist our collective knickers and come to terms with the fact that nuclear power is the way forward...

Disagree, the locating of these things is the issue.Norway have a rule that they can't be within 5 miles of residential settlements, we have no such rule.It may make it more expensive for the companies, but the goodwill created and acceptance by communities is worth it, in their opinion.
 
Nuclear power is the most productive way forward that should be considered as well as utilising Natural Gas with or without fracking.
 
I can empathise with you.I have a wee holiday home near Gatehouse on the Solway Firth, we've been opposed to it for a while.It's not as severe as your case, but the siting of these things are an issue...the muckle wind afrm before the beef tub coming into Moffat has changed the landscape, but it's not located near any significant residential area as far as I know?




Disagree, the locating of these things is the issue.Norway have a rule that they can't be within 5 miles of residential settlements, we have no such rule.It may make it more expensive for the companies, but the goodwill created and acceptance by communities is worth it, in their opinion.

That is the main issue with the residents, many are not anti windfarm but to site so many HUGE turbines is such a beautiful spot beggars belief.
If they went 10 miles down the road towards Newton Stewart they will find one of the least populated areas in the UK [9 folk per sq mile]. Most of it is open moorlands.
 
We need to untwist our collective knickers and come to terms with the fact that nuclear power is the way forward...

Do you think the risks attributed to any accidents are worth it tho ? look at Japan after the earthquake & im sure we havent heard the full extent of it..
They are bound to become terroist targets if they are there ..

Just wondering ab out this , personaly i dont know enough about the pros & cons to defend or oppose them
 
Do you think the risks attributed to any accidents are worth it tho ? look at Japan after the earthquake & im sure we havent heard the full extent of it..
They are bound to become terroist targets if they are there ..

Just wondering ab out this , personaly i dont know enough about the pros & cons to defend or oppose them

The risks are increasingly high but health and safety in this country is superb on key projects like this. Obviously we can't predict natural disasters but touchwood Britain is very unlikely to be hit by an Earthquake or tornado so it would be a ''safer'' project than somewhere like Japan. The risk of terrorism to something like this is always high but then you could say the same for many other marquee buildings like Buckingham Palace and the Houses of Parliament.
 
Hunterston nuclear power station sits on the West Coast of Scotland a few miles SW of Glasgow.
Prevailing wind for that area is westerly/south westerly.
One of the largest deep sea troughs in Europe sits off Arran a few miles from Hunterston.


That makes me feel vulnerable
 
The risks are increasingly high but health and safety in this country is superb on key projects like this. Obviously we can't predict natural disasters but touchwood Britain is very unlikely to be hit by an Earthquake or tornado so it would be a ''safer'' project than somewhere like Japan. The risk of terrorism to something like this is always high but then you could say the same for many other marquee buildings like Buckingham Palace and the Houses of Parliament.

Yep i apreciate the marquee buildings part Akie , but if terrorists did hit either of the two you mentioned it would be contained , if necular plants were hit it would be catastrophic , i know we cant live in fear of what if but its a reality in the world we now live in the threats exist ..
I know the power business must evolve & get better , faster , & cleaner but unfortunatly the companies involved only see it as a capital venture ..
As i said its just my thoughts as i dont know enough to argue for/against it ..
 
It's not nuclear Power stations themselves I have issues with, it's removing and storing the spent rods.didn't the local council recently reject the proposal to bury them in the local area as the potential leakage/environmental disaster was deemed too high?The cost of cleaning up Sellafield is also about £70Billion!
 
Yep i apreciate the marquee buildings part Akie , but if terrorists did hit either of the two you mentioned it would be contained , if necular plants were hit it would be catastrophic , i know we cant live in fear of what if but its a reality in the world we now live in the threats exist ..
I know the power business must evolve & get better , faster , & cleaner but unfortunatly the companies involved only see it as a capital venture ..
As i said its just my thoughts as i dont know enough to argue for/against it ..

Again the issue is that nobody is permitted anywhere near a nuclear power station unless authorised so it would be difficult for terrorists to get at it without flying a plane into it, measures have obviously been tightened up in that area as well. Not saying it could never happen but the likelihood is reduced against other places that the public can visit and go near.

A key issue mentioned above is storing the nuclear waste safely and ensuring that this is cost effective against how much power is produced, don't know enough about that to say whether it is definitely worth it but from what I've heard its worth exploring.
 
Again the issue is that nobody is permitted anywhere near a nuclear power station unless authorised so it would be difficult for terrorists to get at it without flying a plane into it, measures have obviously been tightened up in that area as well. Not saying it could never happen but the likelihood is reduced against other places that the public can visit and go near.

A key issue mentioned above is storing the nuclear waste safely and ensuring that this is cost effective against how much power is produced, don't know enough about that to say whether it is definitely worth it but from what I've heard its worth exploring.

with my limited knowledge of terrorists, i reckon you cud attack Hunterson pretty easily from any angle. by sea by air by land. if it done any serious damage is another issue.
not that i sit all day thinking about it
 
The 'red herring' that is wind power is costing us the taxpayer absolute fortunes in subsidy that would be better spent with far more efficient ways of generating power... France bit the bullet many years ago and adopted nuclear power... Think they have some of the cheapest leccy in Europe... Think its too late for us now... As usual, we'd sooner spend millions [billions?] on just talking about 'it' instead of just getting on with 'it' at the outset...
 
I believe that sea bed tidal power units is the future

Bottom line is that the storing of the electricity seems to be something we need to work on.
Wind farms are quite efficient at producing the power but it all seems to come at once and the grid cannot cope. Hence the reason that only about 50% will be working at any given time. It also takes ages to wind down and refire coal stations. Bit of a mucking fuddle caused by indecision and weak minded politicians over the last 25 years.
 
with my limited knowledge of terrorists, i reckon you cud attack Hunterson pretty easily from any angle. by sea by air by land. if it done any serious damage is another issue.
not that i sit all day thinking about it

They will be onto you if anything does happen there in the next few months!
 
As usual, we'd sooner spend millions [billions?] on just talking about 'it' instead of just getting on with 'it' at the outset...

Seems to be the norm these days. I'm sure I read that in America they built a bridge over a large river in the Midwest somewhere in the 60's for something like £80 million dollars. They've announced they want to build another bridge over the same river but miles downstream and they've already spent more than £80 million dollars and the engineers haven't even finished designing it yet.
 
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