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A petition has been lodged to ask for a judicial review of a decision to approve a 67-turbine wind farm in the Monadhliath Mountains, it has been revealed.
The John Muir Trust is behind the petition, which challenges the decision Energy Minister Fergus Ewing made in June regarding the development. Minister Ewing's approval for the scheme was announced without any Public Local Inquiry taking place, the charity has argued. It added that the proposals also faced opposition from the Scottish Government's advisory body, Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH); the Cairngorms National Park Authority; as well as three out of four local Councillors in Strathspey and Badenoch. In addition, written objections from the public in relation to the development, outnumbered supporting letters by almost 15 to 1.
Commenting on the petition, John Hutchison, Chairman of the John Muir Trust, said: "Over the past year, the Scottish Government has made ground-breaking progress by adopting the new Wild Land Areas map of Scotland, and, for the first time, recognising wild land as an important national asset.
"However, we believe the decision by the Energy Minister to give the go-ahead to Stronelairg without a Public Local Inquiry is not consistent with Scottish Government measures to protect the best areas of wild land from industrialisation.
"This is the largest-ever wind farm approved in the Highlands, and was opposed by both the government's own advisory body on nature and landscape, SNH, and by the Cairngorms National Park Authority.
"Because of the scale of the development, and the breadth of opposition to it, we believe it should have been the subject of a Public Local Inquiry. In the absence of proper democratic scrutiny, our Trustees feel we had no choice but to seek a judicial review of the decision."
Stronelairg lies within the Monadhliath Mountains, which had been proposed as a Core Area of Wild Land by SNH at the time of the Energy Minister's decision to approve the scheme. Following this, the Trust said the Scottish Government asked SNH to remove Stronelairg and the surrounding area from the final version of the Wild Land Areas map.
(JP/MH)
