Council asks energy unit to consider residents’ concerns on power lines

The Shetland Islands Council has asked the Energy Consents Unit to have SSE consider the effect 23,000 metres of overhead power lines will have on residents of Tingwall, Whitedale and Weisdale.

The planning department had recommended the council offered no objections to the proposal to install 23,000 metres of overhead power lines between Kergord and Gremista.

But councillors questioned why the cables could not be delivered underground instead, and said the thoughts of local people had not been taken into account in the report.

They heard it would cost around £50 million more for SSE to deliver the cables underground instead.

During a lengthy debate, councillor Moraig Lyall said she had received “more contact on this issue than any other” since she became a councillor.

“I don’t think we can condemn the people that live in these areas to these poles for the next 40 years,” she said.

Councillors Davie Sandison, John Fraser, Ian Scott, Arwed Wenger, Alex Armitage, Neil Pearson, Bryan Peterson, Dennis Leask, Cecil Smith and Robbie McGregor all raised concerns with the proposal.

Mr Armitage said if the SIC accepted the application without taking into account the concerns of its residents, they would be sending a message to big developers that it was okay to do so.

“If you want to do developments, you have to do it with local people,” he added.

The SIC agreed to ask the Scottish government’s Energy Consents Unit to have SSE consider a submission from the Tingwall, Whitedale and Weisdale Community Council about whether the cables could be delivered underground instead.