{"id":8913,"date":"2010-03-05T20:02:19","date_gmt":"2010-03-06T01:02:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.windturbinesyndrome.com\/static\/static\/?p=8913"},"modified":"2012-02-03T08:08:23","modified_gmt":"2012-02-03T13:08:23","slug":"civil-disobedience-scotland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.windturbinesyndrome.com\/static\/2010\/civil-disobedience-scotland\/","title":{"rendered":"Civil disobedience (Scotland)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

—by Caroline McMorran, The Northern Times<\/a> 3\/4\/10<\/p>\n

An elderly Golspie resident has vowed she will resort to \u201ccivil disobedience\u201d to prevent Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE) from transporting turbine parts for the Gordonbush wind farm on the A9 through Golspie and Brora.<\/p>\n

Eighty-year-old Valerie Scott, who is disabled and can only walk with the aid of an elbow brace, claims to have the support of at least another 28 activists.<\/p>\n

And she warned this week: \u201cWe will do whatever it takes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mrs Scott, whose Main Street home borders the trunk road, has been one of the most vociferous opponents against the use of the A9 through the two villages by the power company.<\/p>\n

Last year she organised a hard-hitting poster and letter campaign as well as appealing directly to SSE.<\/p>\n

The weight of public opinion persuaded SSE to investigate the possibility of using a hill road, accessed off the A9 just south of Golspie, which was built for the Kilbraur wind farm.<\/p>\n

Turbine parts will be transported to Invergordon by boat and from there loaded onto lorries for their journey north.<\/p>\n

But a fortnight ago the power company announced the alternative route, which involves building an extension to the hill road along with a new bridge across the River Brora, was too costly and would mean too much delay.<\/p>\n

SSE\u2019s Major Projects Liaison Manager, Ruth Liddicoat, said: \u201cWe\u2019ve reached the conclusion that the Kilbraur route is just not feasible due to the time it will take to deliver and the cost.\u201d<\/p>\n

Work on the Gordonbush wind farm is scheduled to start in the Spring.<\/p>\n

On the Friday following the announcement, opponents held a public meeting in Fountain Road Church Hall, Golspie.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile Brora and Golspie community councillors met with SSE representatives \u201cin secret\u201d on Wednesday night. Members of the Press were not allowed to attend.<\/p>\n

Mrs Scott said around 40 people had attended the Fountain Hall meeting which she described as \u201cproductive.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said: \u201cThe outcome of the meeting was that we will do whatever it takes to stop them. It\u2019s a straight case of: \u2018No, we are not wearing it.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve explored all other avenues and done everything to make them aware of public opinion but it hasn\u2019t done any good.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am not a person who normally takes part in any form of civil disobedience. By nature I am very quiet and law abiding but we just cannot have this happening \u2013 they are NOT coming through the village and that was the mood of the people at the meeting.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mrs Scott, a member of Golspie Community Council, is well known for her persistence and perseverance. Some time ago she waged a four-year fight with Scottish Water to have a new sewage treatment works built at Golspie.<\/p>\n

She added: \u201cI have a list of 28 people who are prepared to take action and I have had phone calls from even more people who are willing to come down and join the throng.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat usually happens is that people sit back and don\u2019t want to be counted until they see that a lot more people are becoming involved and then they will join in.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said a great deal of support had come from Caithness residents.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt long last people in Caithness and Orkney are realising that this is going to affect them badly. They are concerned about the affect it will have on the National Mod, which is being held in Thurso in October.<\/p>\n

\u201cOrkney also have a folk festival at the end of May and islanders are worried that the turbine traffic might affect that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mrs Scott was reluctant to reveal exactly what action she had in mind.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve still got to work it out and I don\u2019t really want to say any more because if you are going to be involved in civil disobedience, then the police are going to be interested and will stop it before it starts,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

—by Caroline McMorran, The Northern Times 3\/4\/10 An elderly Golspie resident has vowed she will resort to \u201ccivil disobedience\u201d to prevent Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE) from transporting turbine parts for the Gordonbush wind farm on the A9 through Golspie and Brora. Eighty-year-old Valerie Scott, who is disabled and can only walk with the aid of an elbow brace, claims to have the support of at least another 28 activists. And she warned this week: \u201cWe will do whatever it takes.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[171,16],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.windturbinesyndrome.com\/static\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8913"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.windturbinesyndrome.com\/static\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.windturbinesyndrome.com\/static\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.windturbinesyndrome.com\/static\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.windturbinesyndrome.com\/static\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8913"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.windturbinesyndrome.com\/static\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8913\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.windturbinesyndrome.com\/static\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8913"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.windturbinesyndrome.com\/static\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8913"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.windturbinesyndrome.com\/static\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8913"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}