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Landowner MSP hopeful turbine plan will not be derailed by subsidy changes

Tory MSP Jamie McGrigor
Tory MSP Jamie McGrigor

CAMERON BROOKS

A Highland MSP who stands to make around £8million from a windfarm on his estate in Argyll said he fully understood why his party colleagues wanted to stop subsidising new developments.

Conservative Jamie McGrigor said he accepted there were enough onshore projects in the pipeline to meet renewable energy targets but claimed it would be a “shame” for local communities if the scheme at his 3,500 acre farm near Dalmally did not go ahead.

Developer RWE Innogy wants to erect 15 turbines, each 364ft high, at Ardchonnel Farm, near Loch Awe – a project that would yield £240,000 a year in community benefit.

Argyll and Bute Council’s planning committee refused permission but the firm appealed the decision to the Scottish Government and a verdict is expected next month.

The 65-year-old, formally known as Sir James Angus Rhoderick McGrigor, 6th Baronet, said he thought turbines were graceful and “art forms in a certain light” but accepted that some people thought they were ugly.

“UK Energy and Climate Change Secretary Amber Rudd has said that onshore wind is an important part of our energy mix but we now have enough subsidised projects in the pipeline to fulfil Scottish and UK energy targets,” he added.

“That is why they are thinking of cutting the subsidy and I know this will come as a great disappointment to a lot of firms and communities who were hoping to get community benefit.”

Mr McGrigor, an old Etonian, admitted that he was not certain if the policy would have any impact on the project planned for his farm, which was negotiated in 2009.

Asked how he would feel if the new rules resulted in it being scrapped, the MSP said: “Well so be it – if that happens, it happens.

“It was always a project that might or might not happen but from the point of view of investment on the farm and future employment, it would deal a blow to that.

“The community benefit money could be used to re-build the pier at Inveraray, complete the playing field at Dalmally and for other projects in the pipeline that need investment.

“But with a bit of luck they might still get it – it would be shame that they might have to look for money from other sources.”

Mr McGrigor said money he would earn over a 25-year period would enable him to hire more staff on his farm, which has 1,100 sheep, and open a fish smokery – a project that could create three new jobs.