Yet another triumph of money over people disrupted Beauly's gala day

The National

21-07-2025

He says the original journey date for the second transformer was Friday July 4, leading the reader to be perhaps more understanding that SSEN was only a day late with their delivery due to 'necessary maintenance and additional safety checks'.
However, the transformer was scheduled to travel through Beauly on the day before, according to SSEN's own notification to residents: 'The second unit will be transported on 3rd July 2025 between 18.00hrs and 20.30hrs. The time and date of this transport have been selected to reduce the impact on roads.'
READ MORE: Extra safety checks led to delayed transportation of SSEN transformer
There followed a short-notice update of travel for the Saturday gala day: July 5th between 8am and 10.30am. They got the day right the second time, but missed their timings by some margin.
A modicum of research would have told SSEN they should have delayed again until late on the Saturday evening when the village would have been quieter but no, money over people won again and the promised effort to 'reduce impact on roads' was thrown out of the window.
Mr Smith refers to the scoped-out topics that SSEN has seemingly repeated across all of their planning applications, topics that they DO NOT have to address in their Environmental Impact Assessments. It is only fair that people understand exactly what those topics of most concern are: 1. Population and Human Health, 2. Electric and Magnetic Fields, 3. Radio Frequency Interference 4. Major Accidents and Disasters, 5. Air Quality and Climate and 6. Disposal and Recovery of Waste.
A slide listing these topics was shown at a public presentation by SSEN regarding the 868-acre substation site at Fanellan within the rural community of Kiltarlity and was met with horrified gasps from the audience. It was swiftly taken down.
READ MORE: Timing of disruption by SSEN demonstrates lack of regard for locals
It is the opinion of those fighting for their health and wellbeing within this unprecedented electrical experiment that all these relevant subjects should be included and scrutinised in SSEN's planning applications and satisfactory answers given before any approval is considered.
Mr Smith then takes the opportunity to attempt to justify what SSEN is doing and dangle the rotten carrot of community 'benefit'.
Unfortunately, without a full, independent cost/benefit analysis for Scotland and justification as to why our rural communities are being sacrificed to export electricity out of the country, with no guaranteed customers and for the enrichment of their shareholders, his 'explanations' are at best inadequate.
Ed Miliband is hell-bent on industrialising England with renewables plus nuclear and new gas generation, and it is entirely possible they won't even want to buy what the global investment companies here in Scotland have to offer.
Lyndsey Ward
Communities B4 Power Companies, Beauly
THANK you to The National for publishing the revised route for the Palestine protest demonstration in Edinburgh on Saturday. I am guessing that this change was enforced following discussions with police. One consequence for my friend Alex in his wheelchair and myself in my scooter was to rule out our participation from St Giles'. Neither of us can manage cobbles, so this starting point was impossible for us.
We were both keen to add our protest against the continuing genocide of the Palestinians people in Gaza by the Israeli Defence Force and the continuing implicit support from our UK and Scottish governments. The UK Government for refusing to recognise the state of [[Palestine]], for continuing to assist the attacks by arms exports, by providing surveillance information and by proscribing a protest group and by using the new law to attack those who object to this proscription. Our Scottish Government for their non-recording of meetings with Israeli officials and the continued subsidies to our defence companies who are supplying military equipment to the Israeli government.
READ MORE: I was at the national Palestine protest in Edinburgh and saw hope
So, guessing the travelling time from St Giles', we met on Waverley Bridge to join the protest as it passed at our estimate of 1.45pm. We waited for more than one hour in heavy rain after our estimate before the march arrived. Apparently there were speeches before they started. Had this information been released, we could have avoided getting such a drooking. We were, however, pleased to participate.
Come the time to man the barricades, could some consideration be given please to provide a ramp for those of us less mobile but equally committed?
Campbell Anderson
(self-appointed correspondent for the ancient society of disabled Old Age Protesters!)
Edinburgh