LAUDERDALE PRESERVATION GROUP

It would industrialise hundreds of acres of semi natural land including peat bogs, moorland heath and wooded cleughs. The applicant seeks to insert around 20 kilometres or 150 hectares of roads and other hard standing into bog and heath.

For example the applicant excludes steel for towers and foundation reinforcement, the grid connection, all construction traffic, the lithium battery ‘farm’ and more from its calculations. It is likely this project would be a net emitter of carbon. The carbon saving claims in the application are limited and cherry picked.

If successful the application would exclude raptors and wading birds from a large site. The plateau edged with sheer drops is prime hunting ground for raptors such as red kites, buzzards and golden eagles.

The area is also home to other protected species including bats, owls, lapwings, curlews and golden plovers. A colony of ground nesting golden plovers at the site would be decimated by RES’s construction project.

All bat species are protected but some have additional protection as Priority Species. Rare Brown long eared and Noctule bats forage over where RES wants to build an industrial installation.

Noctules are Scotland’s largest bat, with a wingspan of 30 cms. They forage over a 4 km radius and as high fliers, are particularly vulnerable to blade collision. They roost in trees and can hibernate in rocky crevices. The extensive earthworks proposed by RES could render them homeless. The Lammermuirs are a key stronghold for Noctule bats in Scotland. Noctule bats have been recorded over the Glenburnie wetlands, stream and meadows.

The Whalplaw Burn is a main headwater of the Cleekhimin Burn, itself part of the River Tweed Special Area of Conservation. The applicant admits that bulldozing the moor would disrupt and degrade the burn, currently teaming with fish and other life. By RES own estimates (likely conservative) it could take the burn 15 years to recover from the disruption.

The application includes no few than 11 water course crossings large enough to take HGVs and massive cranes. Building the crossings is also disruptive to the biodiversity of the headwaters of the Tweed catchment.

Quarrying can expose toxins that can pollute burns. See the situation on Shetland, where SSE’s Viking windfarm erased all signs of life in the Burn of Lunklet.

The battery ‘farm’ with fencing security lights would bring light pollution into a part of the Lammermuirs that is currently dark. This would be disruptive to nocturnal creatures such as moths.

As well as a carbon store, healthy peat is a biodiverse habitat in its own right. The north and east part of the site is rich in deep peat deposits, healthy moss and pools full of life.

This includes the Tweed SAC and specific protected creatures such as raptors, song birds, waders, migrating birds, bats and owls.

The battery farm, substation, turbines 9, 11 & 12 as well as the main access road would cut into these deep peat deposits, making a further mockery of the developer’s carbon and biodiversity claims.

The application includes 7.6 hectares of quarry, euphemistically called ‘borrow pits’. These along with the drainage required for 20 kilometres of road would amount to dozens of hectares of lost soil and peat.

The original application (called Longcroft) has been scaled back in response. However the second attempt (Glenburnie) still cuts directly into or across:

• the ancient hollow way called the Herring Road. Most recently used by fishwives to carry their creels from Dunbar to the market at Lauder.
• Prehistoric burial cairn perched on the edge of Hogs Law

Although the revised application is slightly removed from well preserved prehistoric remains, the towers are so vast that they would intrude noisily on the ancient and peaceful setting. These include Edgehope Moor prehistoric palisade, Glenburnie hill fort, Longcroft hill fort, Longcroft homestead, Longcroft cist and more.

Not least, that fewer people would want to live in the Borders in future. The value of ordinary people’s main asset would fall. While a small number of people would see obscene financial gain, dozens (& with cumulative impact thousands) of locals could lose tens of thousands from the value of their home.

Also see concerns below under Roads Policy 11e.iv

The Southern Upland Way in particular faces this application among several threats to its peace and tranquillity USP.

This would cause delays to local users, businesses, emergency vehicles and visitors. Heavy traffic would degrade the road. Who is liable for road repairs and maintenance as a result? Local tax payer or the Cambridge based multinational hoping to cash in on a lucrative subsidy scheme? Extra road closures for extra road maintenance would also add to the disruption for local people, visitors and businesses.

The picturesque single track adopted road from A697 to Longcroft clings to a ledge along the sheer drop of Lylestone hill down to Cleekhimin Burn. Allowing a major industrial installation here would require this road to be widened, changing the character of the valley. It is likely part of Lylestone hill would be demolished to accommodate a wider road if the application gets consent. Such an imposition on the Lammermuirs Special Landscape must not happen.

During the dry spring of 2025, the peaty ponds at Glenburnie retained water, where many others dried up.

Aside from the benefits to nature, peat is also an excellent Natural Flood Manager. Instead of a giant sponge, that holds water back, RES wants to churn up much of the peat and replace it with dozens of acres of hard standing, with all the associated run off problems.

Glenburnie is only one application in a current feeding frenzy of subsidy-driven greed visited on Lauderdale and the Borders more widely. The cumulative impact should be seen the in the context of:

• Fallago Rig, right next door
• Dunside application, right next door
• Ditcher Law application, right next door
• Existing windfarms: Dun Law 1, Dun Law 2, Keith Hill, Pogbie
• Potential for an enlarged Dun Law
• Longmuir application
• Toddleburn existing
• Blyth application
• Longpark existing
• Windfarms on and on as far at the eye can see and the Golden Eagle can fly.
• An additional 400 KV powerline through the Borders, only part of which has been revealed by SPEN
• Additional substations
• A rash of solar and battery ‘farm’ applications across the area

Although battery fires are rare, the smoke they produce is particularly toxic. Leaks from the batteries are a concern not addressed in the application. With careful management, the batteries might last ten years. The replacement cost, disruption, potential for discharge all need addressed in the application.

Instead it would deplete and impoverish the area, while extracting profit south to a privately owned multinational in Cambridge.

It would make the area less appealing for sustainable long term businesses, tourism, recreation and general living.

The development would be contrary to Policies PMD2 and ED7 of the Local Development Plan and Policies 9 and 29 of National Planning Framework 4 in that it would not respect and be compatible with the character of the surrounding area, being sited in an isolated location and of a character and visual impact that would not be sympathetic to the context.