200 people, including representatives of more than 30 community councils, overwhelmingly backed a unified statement calling for a pause on all new onshore renewable energy projects in the south of Scotland.

A public inquiry has opened into yet another large-scale renewable development proposed for the Scottish Borders – this time a proposed energy park near Duns.

Communities across the Borders and Highlands are increasingly pushing back against what they see as an imposed, wind-only energy policy driven by Scottish and UK governments, as reported recently in The Scotsman.

A new plan for a major wind farm and battery system in highly sensitive Scottish Borders countryside has deepened community fears about the unprecedented industrialisation of their landscape.

The debate around wind farms in Scotland has taken an interesting turn with the Alba Party leader and former Scottish Government Minister Kenny MacAskill suggesting that there should be an immediate moratorium on all new developments.

Former Scottish Government minister and fair energy prices campaigner Kenny MacAskill has called for further onshore wind projects to be halted.

The Scottish Government has been accused of snubbing a convention of community councils from across rural Scotland which is expected to call for a halt to all onshore renewable energy projects when it meets this Saturday (January 17).

Local communities such as Heriot are hosts to multiple wind farms and, yet have been overwhelmed by a constant stream of additional applications since 2010, according to a recent letter in The Scotsman by John Williams (Chairman of Heriot Community Council).

Scottish Ministers are being urged to intervene and order a public local inquiry into a controversial Borders wind farm amid claims that failure to do so would be a “slap in the face for local democracy”

Community councils across the Scottish Borders are being urged to come together in January to fight back against a relentless surge of large-scale renewable energy developments due to be approved by the Scottish Government.

A coalition of Scottish Borders community councils has formally objected to a proposed wind farm near Hawick, citing “significant errors and omissions” in the developer’s application, as well as an “ongoing lack of collaboration and respect” for the local communities affected.

Campaigners in the Borders have called on the Scottish Government to cease issuing planning permits for more wind farms in Scotland – a country which already has built or consented around eight times more wind capacity than it can use.