RSPB and Wind Farms

THE hysterical campaign by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds against the proposed Lewis wind farm in the Outer Hebrides focuses on red-throated divers, despite European law regulating development activity there to protect the birds, and despite our assessment that the smaller proposal we are now pursuing would not have a significant effect on the relatively small local diver population.

In fact, the RSPB has no interest in our assessment because it has already made up its mind to oppose the Lewis wind farm on political grounds.

Contrast this with the RSPB’s welcoming of the recently announced planning consent for an offshore wind farm in the Thames Estuary, where the thousands of wintering red-throated divers that will be affected by that wind farm have no such protection under European law. And its tacit support for another major wind farm proposal in the breeding ground of thousands of red-throated divers that also does not benefit from protection under European law.

Such blatant inconsistency – treating important populations of the same protected bird species in different ways for political ends – has no place in an organisation with charitable status and a royal charter.

David Hodkinson, Managing director of AMEC’s wind energy business, Bridge End, Hexham, Northumberland.

(c) 2007 Herald, The; Glasgow (UK). Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.