Your article ‘Turbines could stay longer than 5 years’ may have suggested to some readers that I am a member of the group which is continuing to protest about the decision to grant planning consent for the wind turbine test centre at Hunterston.

I am not, nor do I support the aims of that group.

Along with representatives of West Kilbride, Largs and Cumbrae community councils, as well as Fairlie, I am a member of the Liaison Group established by Scottish and Southern Energy to provide a link between the latest Hunterston development and the surrounding communities. An important responsibility of the members of the group is to communicate with their respective communities. I do this through the monthly meeting of Fairlie Community Council, which is usually attended by the local press.

At the September meeting of the group I asked SSE about the arrangements by wish the site was being used by SSE. SSE advised that it had leased the site from its owner Clydeport and also advised that the duration of the lease extended beyond the duration of the planning consent. That planning consent was granted in February 2012 and allows the site to be used for the testing of a maximum of three offshore wind turbines at any given time for a period of 5 years from the date of operation of the first turbine, as advised by SSE to North Ayrshire Council.

However, the consent also states that at the expiry of the 5 year period or 14th October 2017, whichever is the earlier, the operation of the wind turbines must cease. As the first turbine is not yet ‘operational’ then the limit of the current operational consent will be under 4 years from now.

The planning consent also requires that within 6 months of what is now October 2017 the wind turbines and associated infrastructure must be removed and the land restored to to its former condition in accordance with a decommissioning method statement agreed with North Ayrshire Council. The now agreed statement requires the turbine foundations to be removed to 1 m below ground level.

I must make it clear that at no time to date has SSE indicated to the Liaison Group, or I understand to North Ayrshire Council, that it will be seeking to extend the existing planning consent. Should it do so it is likely that the Council would regard the request effectively to be a new planning application.

J Riddell Fairlie