5 Sept 2025
Campaigners and local residents are calling on councillors to object to the proposed Ditcher Law Wind Farm, warning of severe and damaging visual impacts that they say are being downplayed in the latest report from the Scottish Borders Council’s own Landscape Architect.
Next week, on Monday 8 September, the Scottish Borders Council Planning & Building Standards Committee will consider whether to object to the scheme, which would see eight giant turbines up to 200m tall erected on the Lammermuir Hills, along with a 30MW battery storage facility. The final decision rests with the Scottish Government’s Energy Consents Unit (ECU), but the Council has the power to object and trigger a public inquiry.
Despite the Council’s own Landscape Architect highlighting severe impacts, including breaches of Residential Amenity Assessment (RAA) thresholds for nearby homes, it has been recommended that councillors wave the project through, dismissing concerns as merely “localised.”
Rory Steel from Lauderdale Preservation Group said: “Residents are being asked to accept unacceptable impacts just because they are described as ‘localised.’ That cannot be right. Councillors are elected to stand up for their communities, and we hope they will do the right thing here.”
The Council’s Landscape Architect report also points to wide-ranging damage to the setting of the Lauderdale valley, including views down to Lauder, long-distance views from the Eildon Hills, the Southern Upland Way at the Three Cairns, and above all the overwhelming visual intrusion on Oxton village and its surrounding properties.
Most strikingly, the Landscape Architect confirms that some of the closest properties actually exceed the RAA threshold which is the industry measure used to judge whether a home becomes an unacceptable place to live due to turbine dominance.
Rory Steel said: “Either the RAA test matters, or it doesn’t. If thresholds are breached yet waved aside, what is the point of having them? This is a betrayal of local communities.”
The officer’s report concedes that “significant” visual harm will occur around Oxton, but claims these effects are “localised” and therefore acceptable under national policy.
Rory Steel added: “Councillors must stand up for their communities, not let officials brush aside these impacts as if they don’t matter.”
The Ditcher Law Wind Farm is proposed on the eastern edge of the Lammermuir Hills, within the Special Landscape Area, with waterways feeding into the River Tweed Special Area of Conservation.
Campaigners are calling on councillors to reject the officer recommendation and lodge a formal objection, ensuring that a full public inquiry is held.