Residents query plan for 300ft wind turbine

Jun 25 2009 by Gary Fanning, Hamilton Advertiser

WORRIED families are demanding answers over proposals to build a 300ft wind turbine in Larkhall.

Branna Industrial and Technical Services Ltd, Motherwell, have lodged detailed plans with South Lanarkshire Council to build a £2.1million wind turbine and associated support equipment, which will also require new site access.

The wind turbine would be erected at the north of the Rosti factory off Middleton Avenue in Strutherhill Industrial Estate.

It will be used in association with the adjoining Rosti factory. Rosti, who have been based in Larkhall since 1991, employ about 200 people at the Strutherhill plant.

They produce plastic-injection moulded parts for companies such as Jaguar, Volvo, Toyota and OKi.

By installing the wind turbine, Rosti would be able to generate much of its own electricity, totalling about 68 per cent of its present costs.

This would help secure the current level of operations in Larkhall.

The wind turbine would be decommissioned after 25 years.

If the application is approved, work will begin in December and the wind turbine will be in operation by July 2010.

A Neighbourhood Notification has been made to factories in Strutherhill Industrial Estate.

To date, the council have received three letters of objection, and some residents expressed their concerns over the plans at this month’s Larkhall Community Council meeting.

One community councillor said: “We want to know more about the application and I have sent questions to the planning department and I’m waiting for an answer back.

“If Rosti decides to move, which could happen in the future, who is going to dismantle the wind turbine?

“Wind turbines are used to generate power and this goes into the National Grid and they are credited money for generating clean power.

“What is there to stop all the factories in the industrial estate applying for wind turbines if it is going to save them 68 per cent of their electricity power costs?

“It’s going to be difficult to stop them.”

Another councillor said: “What happens if another company not as large as Rosti comes along and set up a wind turbine and then it becomes bankrupt - who is going to dismantle that?”

Larkhall Labour councillor Jackie Burns, who attended the meeting, said: “Rosti will have to give answers to people concerns.

“The application won’t go before a planning committee until August or September.

“Rosti proposals are about retaining 200 jobs in Larkhall and reducing their overheads.”

Rosti are part of the Danish AP Moller-Maersk Group and employ 110,000 people in 125 countries.

Barry Coughlan, managing director (UK) Rosti Technical Plastics, said: “We are currently only at the feasibility stage.

“We are investigating the opportunity of having a percentage of our electricity supplied from a turbine.

“Electricity is a significant proportion of our operating costs.

“Alterative and green sources of this energy will improve our competitiveness and meet with our own environmental strategy.

“We have had dialogue with our workforce and local school and view this as a positive story for the area.”