MachairWind: A message from Iona Community Council
ScottishPower Renewables, owned by the Spanish energy group Iberdrola, has now submitted its application for the 2 GW MachairWind offshore wind development to the Scottish Government's Marine Directorate. The consultation closes on 15 August, and this is now the opportunity for everyone concerned about Iona's future to make their views known.
Iona Community Council has submitted its objection to the proposal. Earlier this year, a community consultation on Iona, with high participation, found overwhelming opposition: 92% of respondents objected to MachairWind, while only 3% supported it.
The Community Council's objection concludes that the applications do not provide the Scottish Ministers with an adequate evidential basis on which to determine them. It identifies fundamental deficiencies in the Environmental Impact Assessment which, taken together, systematically understate the proposal's likely effects on nationally important landscapes, cultural heritage, biodiversity and island communities. These deficiencies are not isolated but recur throughout the assessment, with consequences that cascade across multiple chapters of the Environmental Impact Assessment.
Our community has a strong record of commitment to sustainability and the transition to net zero. Our objection is not to renewable energy. It is to the proposed location of a development of unprecedented scale within the setting of one of Christianity's most significant living cultural landscapes, where landscape, seascape, heritage, spirituality, biodiversity and community have remained inseparable for nearly fifteen centuries.
The issue is not simply the visibility of turbines. It is the integrity of a living cultural landscape whose significance derives from the interrelationship of its natural environment, biodiversity, historic environment, archaeology, sacred places, settlements, seascapes and living community.
MachairWind would place turbines up to 340 metres high—among the tallest currently operating anywhere in the world and each taller than the Eiffel Tower—approximately 13 miles from Iona. The windfarm would occupy an area approximately half the size of Mull and around fifty times the size of Iona, introducing industrial-scale development into an undeveloped Atlantic seascape of exceptional scenic, ecological, cultural and spiritual importance.
The proposal would fundamentally alter the setting and experience of Iona's internationally significant cultural heritage and protected landscapes. That significance does not reside in individual monuments, buildings or designated sites considered separately, but in the integrity of the island's living cultural landscape as a whole: the relationship between its archaeology, historic environment, sacred places, biodiversity, landscape and seascape that has shaped Iona's history, identity and continuing life for nearly fifteen centuries. Industrial development on this scale would fundamentally change that relationship.
The objection also concludes that affected communities were not afforded a genuine opportunity to participate when this offshore area was identified for development. For Iona Community Council, the strategic consultation on the W1 Plan Option comprised precisely two emails. Those emails did not communicate the significance of the proposed Plan Option for Iona and neighbouring islands, and the consultation took place as communities were responding to the emergence of the COVID-19 emergency. The current consultation has similarly required communities to review many thousands of pages of highly technical environmental information within a consultation period falling entirely during the busiest period of the year for the communities most directly affected.
How you can help
- Read Iona Community Council's objection: [PDF]
- Submit your own representation to the Scottish Ministers before 15 August. Every representation is considered individually.
Email: MD.MarineRenewables@gov.scot - Use ObjectNow's public objection platform to prepare a focused representation on the planning and environmental issues relevant to the Ministers' decision. The platform is expected to go live shortly—please keep checking: https://object.now/machair/
- Share information with others who care about Iona's future.
The Community Council's submission comprises:
- Iona Community Council Objection [PDF]
- Annexes: Evidence Note – MachairWind EIA Methodology Analysis and Methodological Audit – Cultural Heritage
For updates, background information and analysis prepared by residents of Iona and Mull, please visit Hebridean Horizon:
https://www.hebrideanhorizon.co.uk/
You may also wish to support the wider community response by:
- signing the community petition: https://www.change.org/p/please-support-our-hebridean-islands-say-no-to-machairwind
- contributing to the community crowdfunder: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/hebrideanhorizon
View the full application
The application for Section 36 consent, declaration under section 36A, the marine licence applications, the Environmental Impact Assessment Report and supporting documentation for the Windfarm Development Area can be accessed here:
MachairWind project (ScotWind W1) | marine.gov.scot
The Scottish Ministers' decision will have lasting consequences for Iona. We encourage everyone with an interest in the island's future to submit a representation before 15 August and help ensure that the environmental, cultural and community significance of Iona is fully understood in the determination of these applications.
With thanks for your support,
Iona Community Council