{"id":600007,"date":"2026-04-12T22:56:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-12T22:56:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/600007\/"},"modified":"2026-04-12T22:56:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-12T22:56:12","slug":"energy-park-weather-mast-sparks-fresh-dark-sky-fears","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/600007\/","title":{"rendered":"Energy park weather mast sparks fresh Dark Sky fears"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Plans for a weather mast on the site of a proposed energy park in southern Scotland have sparked fresh fears of the impact on the area&#8217;s dark sky status.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Dumfries and Galloway Council is being advised to approve the structure &#8211; with a maximum height of 90m (300ft) &#8211; on land earmarked for the Lairdmannoch development near Gatehouse of Fleet.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Consultation is ongoing over proposals for the energy park, with developers saying it will be &#8220;as inconspicuous as possible from sensitive areas&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The local community council has argued the order of the applications does not make sense and that lighting needed on the mast would harm nearby dark sky designation.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/articles\/c62d10mrk67o?xtor=AL-72-%5Bpartner%5D-%5Byahoo.north.america%5D-%5Blink%5D-%5Bnews%5D-%5Bbizdev%5D-%5Bisapi%5D\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Campaigners raised concerns last year;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;Campaigners raised concerns last year&quot;}\" class=\"link \">Campaigners raised concerns last year<\/a> that the UK&#8217;s first Dark Sky Park in Galloway could see its status at risk if the energy park went ahead.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The development is outside its designated area and buffer zone but there are fears that the turbines and aviation lights would be visible.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">That application &#8211; for nine turbines, solar panels and battery storage &#8211; is currently with the Scottish government.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The council has until 29 May to submit its consultation response.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">However, in the meantime, the application has come in for a meteorological mast on the site.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Tongland and Ringford Community Council has objected for a string of reasons &#8211; including its dark sky impact and potential harm to wildlife.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Other opponents have argued any decision should be deferred until after the main development has been approved or refused.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">They said it could not be isolated from the energy park and that to approve the mast would set an &#8220;undesirable precedent&#8221; and undermine public confidence.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">A report to councillors said the proposal was for a &#8220;fairly industry standard, and lightweight, piece of infrastructure that is commonly used to monitor wind speeds&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">It added that it would only be in place temporarily and recommended that it should be approved.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The developer, Wind2, has said it is &#8220;very aware&#8221; of the dark sky status and the value of &#8220;preserving the area&#8217;s natural light skies&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">It said the energy park could meet the needs of up to 67,000 homes and would generate a community fund of more than \u00a312m over its operational life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Plans for a weather mast on the site of a proposed energy park in southern Scotland have sparked&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":600008,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[227240,49,48,148994,126944,227237,227236,227239,195007,227238,44],"class_list":["post-600007","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-canada","tag-buffer-zone","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-dark-sky","tag-dark-sky-park","tag-dumfries-and-galloway-council","tag-energy-park","tag-gatehouse-of-fleet","tag-maximum-height","tag-meteorological-mast","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/600007","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=600007"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/600007\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/600008"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=600007"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=600007"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=600007"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}