A PLANNING application for a permanent 75 metre met mast by the owners of Little Raith Wind Farm, Kennedy Renewables, has faced strong opposition from residents.

The application site is an area of agricultural land of approximately 800 square metres in size which is situated to the west of the Little Raith Wind Farm, at Gleniston, near Auchtertool. The proposal is for the erection of a wind monitor mast to allow the developer to monitor and optimise the performance of the wind turbine generators on the adjacent Little Raith Windfarm.

The application caused a surge of objections from residents concerned 'the lack of information provided in the application', the cumulative visual impact and the detrimental impact this will have on residential visual amenity'.

Residents from across Central Fife, amounting to 47 objections, raised concern over the latest proposals by Kennedy Renewables which will be considered by the West Area Planning Committee on Wednesday.

A spokesperson for award winning community group, Loch of Shining Waters, James Glen, said: “Residents sent a clear message to Kennedy Renewables to go away in 2015 when proposals to extend the wind farm received objections from 324 residents. Once more residents have come forward to object to the proposed met mast with 47 objections received by Fife Council.”

He added: “Concerns have been raised with our group that the met mast being proposed is another pre-cursor for a future wind farm application. Residents aren’t taking any chances with the developer."

Kennedy Renewables had previously submitted an application to extend Little Raith by an additional six 125m Wind Turbines in 2015 but faced strong local opposition. Fife Council rejected the application and the resultant appeal by the developer was rejected by the Scottish Reporter.

James further said: “This latest application is an insult to residents. The area has been saturated with wind turbines by greedy developers keen to exploit the previous lucrative subsidy scheme and although residents have sent a clear message to the developers they keep coming back.

“Kennedy Renewables have repeatedly failed to do the right thing by the community. The community benefit is far much lower than the national standard of £5000 per Mw. Residents continue to be impacted by shadow flicker and unacceptable noise levels have been ignored by the developer.”

The application will be presented at the West Planning Committee on February 22 for a decision to be made by councillors.