Campaign group claims crash proves roads are unsuitable for wind farms
A road accident which has left two huge cranes on their side shows many roads across Dumfries and Galloway are unsuitable for windfarm development, a campaign group has said.
The all-terrain cranes came off the road while travelling to the Windy Rig development on February 22.
Save Our Hills said the incident had become a “fiasco” and showed roads leading to windfarm developments were often unsuitable for large vehicles.
It was reported the road had collapsed under the weight of the vehicles after being compromised by recent flooding.
The vehicles weighed 200 and 160 tonnes respectively and were travelling a few miles apart when the incident took place.
No-one was injured in the accident, and windfarm developers Statkraft said a plan was being developed to recover the vehicles.
Iain Milligan, spokesman for Save Our Hills, said: “People in Dumfries and Galloway are used to giant windfarms spoiling the landscape. Now the vehicles being used to make them are ruining the roads too.
“This crash has been a complete fiasco, and just shows again why the area is unsuitable for repeated large-scale windfarm development.
“This accident happened weeks ago, yet these giant cranes still lie at the side of the road. Local people are furious that this has been allowed to happen.
“If the government and council were more prepared to stand up to these developers and their unacceptable planning applications, incidents like this wouldn’t happen.”