A CONTROVERSIAL financier and Conservative Party donor is set to make millions from a Scottish windfarm project despite the reservations of a local community.
Dr Christopher Moran is the owner of the 48,000-acre Cabrach Estate in Moray.
The Dorenell Wind Farm began producing energy on Moran’s land in 2019, reportedly earning him more than £1 million a year in rent from the Dutch company operating the site.
However, campaigners are concerned that green-lit plans, which include the extension of a wind farm onto Moran’s property, could negatively impact local residents.
Indeed, a second wave of further onshore wind farm projects in the Cabrach region have already been given the go-ahead, with a third wave in the works.
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Members of the Cabrach Trust – an organisation set up to preserve the region’s cultural heritage – say that while they support the Scottish Government’s net-zero goals, the area has reached a “saturation point” when it comes to windfarms.
Speaking to the Daily Record, the trust’s chief executive Jonathan Christie said the community felt “voiceless”.
"The Cabrach community wholly supports Scotland’s aspiration for a just transition to net zero,” he said.
“However, recently consented plans for a second wave of wind farm developments have caused great concern about cumulative impact.
“Now, with a third wave of onshore wind developments navigating planning, the community is left feeling voiceless and powerless in the face of what can only be described as an unrelenting pattern of consents at any cost.
“To put it bluntly, if all third wave developments secure consent, the Cabrach unwittingly becomes the UK’s largest onshore wind park.
“There is an urgent requirement to apply the brakes.”
Moran, who lives in a £25m mansion in London, has a chequered history in the world of finance.
He was the first British insurance broker expelled from Lloyds of London due to “discreditable conduct” and an investigation by the Sunday Times found more than 100 prostitutes available for business in a serviced apartment building owned by Moran in Chelsea.
He has consistently denied having any knowledge of the considerable prostitution activity taking place within the building.
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Moran and his various companies are thought to have donated at least £300,000 to the Conservative Party.
A Scottish Government spokesman said: “We need bold action to tackle the climate emergency and Scotland has extensive renewable generation capabilities with which to accelerate the just transition to net zero.
“Scotland has some of the most stringent environmental impact regulations anywhere in the world and our planning and consenting system ensures that local communities can always have their say.
“It is vital that local communities are fully engaged in and derive lasting benefits from any onshore wind development.”
Last year, Moran announced that he would once again become a father at the age of 75.
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