Residents raise fears for wildlife over onshore wind farm proposals

People living near the site earmarked for the first Manx onshore windfarm have voiced fears for local wildlife.

Manx Utilities (MU) is investigating an area at Earystane and Scard to build several turbines designed produce 20 megawatts of electricity by 2026.

It forms part of government's commitment to decarbonise the island's electricity supply by 2030.

But John Corteen of Bee and Blossom Farm holiday cottages said the project could be "hugely damaging".

Mr Corteen, who keeps bird of prey and cares for and rehabilitates injured birds, said he was speaking out because the local ecology "doesn't have a voice".

Plans for the area include up to five wind turbines, each of which would be at 492 ft (150 m) high, which is nearly the height of Blackpool Tower at 518 ft (158 m).

"If you put Blackpool Tower at the top of that hill you're going to see it from every part of the southern island,"Mr Corteen said.

John Corteen is a keeper of birds of prey including peregrine falcons

Mr Corteen said the area was home to owls, buzzards, hen harriers and other rare birds including woodcock and it was "not by accident that wildlife has done well here".

"If we put huge infrastructure on the hill with roads and the cement that's required to put in a turbine, which is hugely damaging on the environment, there's no coming back from that," he added.

Tina Corteen, who runs the holiday home business with her husband, said people came to them for the "peace and tranquillity and also the nature".

However she said a number of their visitors had been "categorically clear" that should the project go ahead they would not return.

She said: "Not only will they not come back to Bee and Blossom Farm, they will not come back to the Isle of Man".

A rare leucistic hen harrier was recently spotted in the south of the island

Neighbour Sara Elliott echoed concerns that the development would "destroy what we ought to be protecting".

She said it would also "greatly affect the people who live here and are here because of their love of the natural landscape".

Rushen MHK Michelle Haywood said while some people would inevitably be worried about the proximity of the development to their homes, they needed to look at the wider benefits.

She said the proposals considered what was "for the greater good of the greatest number of people on the island".

"Almost certainly getting ourselves weaned off fossil fuels is the way that we need to go," she said.

"We have a legal duty to do that under the Climate Change Act."

Arbory and Rushen Parish Commissioners have taken a neutral stance on the plans, having facilitated a number of public meetings.

However chairman Stan Pilling said the board would like to see national parks formed to protect certain "uplands from developments such as this".

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