Holyrood meet leaves Moffat members flat

MOFFAT was represented at a round table discussion at Holyrood this week focussing on calls for a moratorium on commercial renewable energy applications.

But community leaders were left underwhelmed by the short appearance of the government’s Cabinet Secretary for Climate Action and Energy, Gillian Martin.

The discussion on Tuesday was called by members of Highland Convention, and joined by representatives from a newly established body in the South of Scotland, as well as a range of MSPs.

Updating Moffat and District Community Council, secretary Mick Barker said: “Gillian Martin was there at the start of the meeting, she said that they were trying to improve community benefit and ownership and that she was interested in trying to do this better.

“But after about 25 minutes she had to be elsewhere, so although a number of MSPs were there and openly very critical of the current situation in terms of the opaqueness of the structure,

“I can’t report that there was any evidence arising that the Minister took any message away because for most of it, she wasn’t there to hear what communities had to say.”

Since 2022, over 30 major energy projects, including windfarms with turbines exceeding 200 metres, have been approved in Dumfries and Galloway alone.

Moffat has had its own share of issues relating to windfarm and BESS applications, with many residents repeatedly raising concerns about the impact of such projects on the areas landscapes and tourism.

Mick continued: “The end-game is not clear to the communities whose land and assets and tourism sector is impacted by it, the absence of a programme to say this is the end-game.

“There are a lot of complexities to this but Gillian Martin did try to deflect in the time she was there.”

MDCC chair Liam O’Neill added: “What’s currently happening is often been described as the Wild West approach, just a gold rush without thinking what’s happening elsewhere.

“We need them to stop and think about this again and that’s all we’re asking.

“We’re not against net zero, we’re not thinking ‘not in my backyard’, but what we want are proper thought out plans instead of this rush that’s happening.”