Sep 07 - Daily Mail; London (UK)

A decision on whether to grant planning permission for 23 huge wind turbines to be sited in a well-known Scots beauty spot will be made today.

The proposed 365ft turbines would dominate the ridge of the Blackcraig Hills in Dumfriesshire.

The Special Stewartry Area Committee of Dumfries and Galloway Council will sit in Castle Douglas town hall this morning.

After presentations by Scottish Southern Energy and the Galloway Landscape And Renewable Energy (GLARE) protest group, it will make its recommendation to the council.

A source said it had already been 'highly recommended' that planning permission be granted, despite 700 objections to the project.

The massive turbines would be taller than the Forth Bridge and visible from the Isle of Man.

A spokesman for Scottish Southern Energy said: 'This wind farm would not only produce clean energy, but would do it from our own shores.

We are confident the wind farm meets all necessary requirements and look forward to any discussions raised by the meeting.' Protesters claim the turbines will ruin the area. GLARE co- ordinator Alison Chapman believes the wind farm, one of several planned locally, will devastate the landscape.

She said: 'This is such an historic area. It has been lauded by Robert Burns in song and Thomas Carlyle wrote his most important work here.' Colin Carter-Campbell, who now owns the historic country house in which Carlyle lived, is horrified at the prospect of the wind farm.

He said: 'Dumfries and Galloway council will destroy this place. If the wind farm goes ahead, it will be the most appalling act of vandalism.' Any decision to build the wind farm would have to be ratified by the Scottish Executive.

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