Villagers against another wind farm in South Lanarkshire

The majority of villagers who took part in the survery are against the plan

Banks Renewables have applied to South Lanarkshire Council with a scoping opinion request as it seeks to create Bodinglee Wind Farm near Biggar by erecting 62 turbines with tip heights of 200-250 metres.

If the development goes ahead it will become the third largest on-shore wind farm in the UK, located around a mile from Roberton which will “enjoy” undestricted views of the turbines.

A small group of villagers got together to distribute a questionnaire to their fellow residents of Roberton with over 90 per cent of the 67 per cent who responded against the proposal.

Virginia Bennett said: “This is just the latest in a series of developments proposed during lockdown, when effective public consultation is not really possible which smacks of opportunism.

"Scotland is well on track to meet its target of generating 100 per cent of its electricity from renewable sources and the focus of climate change initiatives turns away from on-shore developments.

“Sandwiched between the massive Clyde Wind Farm to the south, Douglas, Middle Muir and Andershaw to the west, and Broken Cross to the north, Bodinglee will cover one of the last remaining big open spaces.

"This would appear to be just the kind of saturation that the South Lanarkshire policy documents discourage, but the decision will be at Holyrood and any comments or objections made by members of the public at this stage are simply fed back to the developer.

“The first step in the development is the erection of a wind monitoring mast. If the council is serious about upholding its own Capacity Study, then you might expect it to reject the planning application which has been submitted for this.

“If that happens, maybe the scale of the development could be reduced without further delay.

"If not, local residents will have to endure another 18 months of ‘consultation with the developer’ until June 2022, which is the developer’s cut off date for finalising the design and submitting its formal planning application, at which point the general public might finally be allowed to lodge objections.”