It is striking that whilst the renewable developments of Sutherland accelerate, not one significant wind farm in the area is community-owned and economic business as usual sees the profits extracted by corporations and private equity firms.
In fact, recent research by the Centre for Local Economies (CLES) has shown that capacity over the five financial years from 2019-20 to 2023-2024, 49 per cent of Scotland’s installed onshore wind developments made a total of £2.83 billion in post-tax profits, nearly 90 per cent of that profit - £2.49 billion – was paid as dividends to corporate shareholders. This is not a just transition, nor is it maximising the radical, decentralising potential of renewable energy or spreading the wealth that this economic opportunity presents. More corporate-led development is not what we need.
We cannot allow regressive politics to undermine opportunities for a fairer economic system and transformational rural development, nor damage our drive to decarbonise and protect the planet.
The work has addressed historic ground contamination, improved accessibility through earthworks and landscaping, and introduced new habitats, including a wetland area to support biodiversity and manage emerging surface water. Native tree planting and wildflower seeding have further enhanced the land.
The green space is already being used by local community groups
Twice a day the tide comes in and submerges everything below the high tide mark, twice a day the water retreats, exposing the intertidal mud. Nutrients are trapped in the layers and these are energy-rich, supporting an extensive food web. Plants find it hard to establish in this constantly changing environment.
The Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC) states that the Dornoch Firth intertidal area is an extensive, high-quality, and largely undeveloped estuary (designated a Special Area of Conservation, SAC )
The number of Scottish homes with solar panels has almost doubled since before the last gas price crisis started following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and electric heat pumps have been installed at about twice the rate of homes in England. In Aberdeenshire and Stirling, one in ten homes now have solar panels.
New analysis of Microgeneration Certification Scheme data by the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU) has found Scottish homes pulling ahead of England for the first time in recent years in installing solar panels [1]. There are now 20% more solar PV systems on Scottish homes compared to England (52 per 1,000 Scottish households cumulatively vs 44 in England), and this figure has almost doubled since 2019 (23 per 1,000 Scottish households).
Solar is not the only net zero technology that has experienced strong growth. Scotland has installed heat pumps at twice that rate of England (over 17 air source heat pumps per 1,000 households cumulatively in Scotland, around 9 per 1,000 households in England). Deployment in Scotland has accelerated sharply in recent years, rising by more than threefold since 2019, highlighting how quickly net zero heating has increased in popularity in Scottish homes. This prevalence of heat pumps likely reflects the higher number of off-gas grid homes in Scotland, where heat pumps replace oil or biomass systems.
Upticks in solar and heat pumps installations come largely after 2021, coinciding with a spike in public interest during the last energy crisis and support for net zero technologies like the introduction of the Boiler Upgrade Scheme.
There were others with similar messages in the area as well but unfortunately I didn't have time to photograph them. Looked made by hand with gel pens, punk af
Community and local energy is still too often framed as a small-scale consent-building exercise, a sideshow to the main event of industrial decarbonisation, rather than a legitimate and scalable route to transitioning the UK energy system. As the 2024 Labour manifesto recognised, community and public ownership of the energy sector is the norm in other countries: 52 percent of Denmark’s wind capacity is community-owned, and at least 50 percent of Germany’s onshore wind capacity is citizen-owned. Meanwhile less than 1 percent of Scotland’s onshore wind capacity is in genuine community, public or third sector ownership
“Everybody had their part to play, and it just shows what can be done. You didn’t have a script to follow, you were making it up as you went along and trying just to do the right thing.”
And as Gardner sums it up – “the Shetland community won the day for us”.
Saving Wildcats has announced a third consecutive year of wild births, with several released females confirmed to have given birth to new litters in the Cairngorms National Park this June.
The project, led by wildlife conservation charity the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland (RZSS), celebrated these new arrivals as a huge accomplishment for wildcat restoration efforts in Scotland. This news follows breeding successes in 2024 and 2025.
Louise Hughes, Saving Wildcats field operations manager, said: “There is so much anticipation when you first suspect there have been kitten births. It is a truly exciting event and seeing kittens on trail cameras really lifts the whole team and spreads a genuine buzz throughout the many communities across Scotland that support wildcat restoration.”
Aspen Bristle Moss Moved in Emergency Bid to Save Rare Scottish Population - Plantlife
Plantlife Scotland has carried out an emergency translocation of a rare moss Aspen Bristle Moss Nyholmiella gymnostoma after a fallen Aspen tree put the species’ Scottish population at risk.
Without intervention, the moss on this tree would die as the bark deteriorated and other mosses outcompeted it, creating a time-critical chance to test whether it could be translocated.
The moss, which is known at just three sites in Scotland, was moved onto nearby living trees after a storm brought down an Aspen supporting as much as 5% of the known Scottish population.
The amendment would extend the Sandford Principle, which gives conservation priority when national park aims conflict with economic development. Currently, it applies only to park authorities making planning decisions, not to ministers deciding on appeals or other national park matters.
World Peatlands Day celebrated with record restoration figures in Scotland - Scottish Rural Network
Job opportunities, collaboration and nature recovery show promise for the national commitment to restore Scotland’s degraded peatlands.
On the day (Tuesday 2 June) the world celebrates the importance of healthy peatlands, the annual Peatland ACTION review has revealed that 15,448 hectares of peatland restoration – the equivalent of nearly 30,000 football pitches – was achieved in Scotland through the partnership in 2025. This total is over 3,000ha above the Scottish Government’s Programme for Government target for 2025/26.
Healthy peatlands are carbon sinks, estimated to hold the equivalent of 140 years’ worth of the country’s total annual greenhouse gas emissions. Scotland has around 2million hectares of them, but they are currently one of our largest degraded ecosystems making them a contributor to climate change if we don’t restore them.
World Peatlands Day celebrated with record restoration figures in Scotland - Scottish Rural Network
Job opportunities, collaboration and nature recovery show promise for the national commitment to restore Scotland’s degraded peatlands.
On the day (Tuesday 2 June) the world celebrates the importance of healthy peatlands, the annual Peatland ACTION review has revealed that 15,448 hectares of peatland restoration – the equivalent of nearly 30,000 football pitches – was achieved in Scotland through the partnership in 2025. This total is over 3,000ha above the Scottish Government’s Programme for Government target for 2025/26.
Healthy peatlands are carbon sinks, estimated to hold the equivalent of 140 years’ worth of the country’s total annual greenhouse gas emissions. Scotland has around 2million hectares of them, but they are currently one of our largest degraded ecosystems making them a contributor to climate change if we don’t restore them.
We live in a world of double standards,
One law for them and one law for we,
They say what is legal and what is a crime,
They say what is war and what is terrorism,
They say what they want to say to justify their own actions,
Who are the terrorists and who are the heros?
Who are the terrorists?
Who are the heros?
Double standards.
Now when Adolf Hitler tried to conquer the world with his evil regime,
Anybody who fought against him was classed as a hero,
They fought fire with fire,
But for many many years there's been a regime every bit as evil as that of Adolf Hitler,
But if you fight against the apartheid system in South Africa, you are a terrorist.
Who are the terrorists?
Who are the heros?
Double standards.
Imagine if aliens from outer space came to conquer the human race,
Came to control all the world's wealth and take the best part of the world for themself.
Suppose they say "Fear not peoples of Earth, we are here to help you. Give us everything of any worth and we will not harm you. You have gold mines, or should I say used to have, now they're mine. But you can work in the golden grime for a 80 hour week, we'll give you about... £2 a time. Oh yes, another thing, you must all carry a pass, just so none of you get lost. Certain boundaries you must not cross or our police will bust you aaarrrsseee."
Sound familiar?
People of the World will fight for their liberty, even if it took centuries,
And when the oppressor was forced to go, the people who fought against them would be classed as heros, and quite rightly so.
So why oh why oh why oh why are the people who fight against the oppressors in South Africa classed as terrorists?
To me, they are heros.
Who are the terrorists?
Who are the heros?
Come tell me.
Double standards
Fighting in Namibia,
The media says this is a clash between South African troops and SWAPO guerillas,
Troops against guerillas.
I would say it is a clash between a South African terrorists and SWAPO freedom fighters,
Yeahh, sounds more like it true.
Botha and his henchmen called the ANC terrorists,
That's worse than the pot calling the kettle black,
The apartheid system is an act of terrorism itself,
It is evil, evil, evil, evil, evil, evil, evil, evil, evil.
Killing of the children in Soweto was an act of terrorism,
Locking Mandela in a prison so long is an act of terrorism,
Indefinite detention is an act of terrorism,
Invasion of people's homeland is an act of terrorism,
So tell me, who are the terrorists?
Who are the heros?
Who are the terrorists?
Who are the heros?
Who are the terrorists?
Who are the heros?
Who are the terrorists?
I know. Do you?
"It’s an energy market that essentially does not reward the areas of the country that generate renewable energy – it rewards the corporations behind it,” he said.
The latest expansion introduces three cycle repair kits and two cycle repair stands as well as a collection of new books, provided by HiTRANS as part of their Active Travel project. The items are available for all Orkney Library members to borrow for free, making it easier for residents to maintain their bikes and support active travel.
These new additions complement the Hub’s existing collection, which includes household tools, kitchenware, birdwatching kits and wintering‑well kits. Together, they offer a practical alternative to buying items that are often expensive, used infrequently or difficult to store at home.
The Hub is part of the Scotland‑wide Lend & Mend network, a pioneering initiative managed by the Scottish Library and Information Council (SLIC), which supports communities to adopt circular‑economy habits by providing the tools, skills and confidence to repair and reuse everyday items.
The renovated building will become the new home of the Southside Tool Library, which enables local residents to borrow tools for DIY, repair and home improvement projects. The venue will also provide flexible community space for meetings, workshops and events
Energy-efficiency measures, including solar panels and air-source heat pumps, have been incorporated into the redevelopment
New wintering habitat has been built for natterjack toads at a Scottish Water wastewater treatment works at Powfoot on the Scottish Solway Coast.
The natterjack toad (Epidalea calamita) can only be found at a handful of locations in Scotland, all on the Solway coast; it is now Scotland’s rarest amphibian. Natterjack numbers have declined dramatically in recent years, largely due to habitat loss caused by sea level rise, coastal erosion, agricultural intensification, urban expansion and commercial forestry.
To help address this decline in habitat, Scottish Water, NatureScot, Amphibian and Reptile Conservation (ARC), and Hoddom and Kinmount Estates have joined together to build hibernacula, specialist structures designed to provide natterjacks safe spaces to shelter in winter. The project has been funded by Species on the Edge, an endangered species conservation programme funded by The National Lottery Heritage Fund. The construction of the hibernacula has been carried out by environmental services and ground maintenance company, Ground Control.
Each hibernaculum is built by digging pits into the earth and filling them with large rocks. Sand is packed into the spaces between. The natterjack toad is the only amphibian in the UK with the ability to burrow, and the structure creates a network of cavities and crevices with varying microclimates into which the natterjacks can burrow, shelter and regulate their body temperature during winter.
The design takes inspiration from features of the traditional farmed landscape – such as dry-stone walls and dust baths – which natterjacks once relied on but which have largely disappeared due to the intensification of modern agriculture.
Liam Templeton from Amphibian and Reptile Conservation (ARC) said: “We’re incredibly fortunate to have the iconic natterjack toad on the Scottish Solway Coast. The species was once abundant here, particularly at locations like Powfoot; local residents speak fondly about times when natterjacks could be heard chorusing on warm spring and summer evenings. It is our ambition for the species to return to its former glory so that such experiences can be enjoyed by future generations to come.
By constructing these hibernacula, we are providing a key habitat requirement for the species and ensuring that they have every opportunity to thrive as they have done before.”
Terri Ward, Biodiversity & Natural Capital Leader at Scottish Water, said: “Scottish Water is delighted to be working on this project alongside ARC, NatureScot and Ground Control. Healthy, well-functioning ecosystems are key to supporting the resilience and sustainability of water and wastewater services. These habitat improvements are part of a wider focus on treating nature as a vital asset in responding to challenges such as climate change.”
Two hibernacula at Powfoot (c) Liam Templeton Amphibian and Reptile Conservation
Powfoot hibernaculum (c) Liam Templeton Amphibian and Reptile Conservation
Natterjack toad (c) Chris Dresh
Male natterjack toad (c) Chris Dresh
About Species on the Edge
Species on the Edge is a multi-partner species conservation programme dedicated to working with communities across Scotland’s coasts and islands to help them secure a future for their local nationally and internationally vulnerable species. Funded by The National Lottery Heritage Fund, the partnership consists of Amphibian and Reptile Conservation, Bat Conservation Trust, Buglife, Bumblebee Conservation Trust, Butterfly Conservation, NatureScot, Plantlife, and RSPB Scotland. The programme is active across seven landscape-scale areas in Scotland: Argyll and the Inner Hebrides; Outer Hebrides; North Coast; Orkney; Shetland; East Coast; Solway Coast.
About Amphibian and Reptile Conservation
Amphibian and Reptile Conservation (ARC) is a UK based wildlife charity dedicated to two important groups of animals. Its mission is to safeguard healthy populations of amphibians and reptiles and the habitats on which they depend. ARC’s team work to conserve green spaces, enthuse and involve more people in their conservation through its custodianship of over 80 nature reserves, spanning across 2000 hectares. The trust takes forward conservation directly through its team of over 50 employees along with 1000 volunteers. These include governmental and NGO bodies partners to influence others through advocacy, education and increasing awareness. In addition to its work in the UK, ARC also works to make a difference for amphibians and reptiles further afield, across Europe and internationally.
https://www.kylechronicle.co.uk/community-centred-energy-policy-would-solve-sutherland-renewables-tensions/Open linkView original on slrpnk.net
