Gravir villagers hold showdown against energy cable  ( 29/8/08)

A large crowd of disgruntled villagers have held a showdown with energy giant SSE to try and stop it industrialising a remote rural part of Lewis.

Scottish And Southern Energy (SSE) through its subsidiary firm Scottish Hydro-Electric Transmission (Shetl) wants to build a large electricity convertor station on a hill above Gravir in South Lochs.

The small community would become an energy junction where electricity from planned giant windfarms would pass through a prominent sub-station, and carried via a giant cable running down the hillside and under Loch Odhairn sealoch.
Locals are horrified that the jumble of electrical lines and cables would run along the roadside of various villages towards Stornoway.

Compounding their fears are plans to erect two giant windfarms on neighbouring moorland at Pairc and Eishken which could result in pylons being built to take the generated energy to Gravir.

Around 70 worried residents who packed out Gravir school late on Thursday night heard SSE warn it would legally force the transmission system onto villagers’ private property if necessary.

It refuses to shift the proposed converter station further away onto the adjacent private Eishken estate apparently because it would cost an extra £ 7 to £ 8 extra millions of pounds.

Afterwards, Paul Bailey chair of Pairc Community Council said: "That is a drop in the ocean for them. But it is the only reason this is going into Gravir.

“It is the cheapest option. The rest is just flannel and the community is not happy with it.”

Concerned councillor Philip McLean said: "Everyone feels powerless to actually do anything about it.

"Calls to locate the cable and sub-station on Eishken were dismissed as were calls to upgrade the existing Skye to Harris interconnector instead.

"It was confirmed that compulsory wayleave powers through gardens and crofts would be used if necessary to route the cable from the loch to the sub-station.

"It appears that the only element of the proposals that needs any sort of approval at all is the detailed design of the sub-station building."

Source: Hebrides News