LANDOWNERS and a Scottish Borders community council are warning farmers about the dangers of long-term lease agreements for battery storage units.

Leitholm, Eccles, and Birgham community council have written to the Scottish Government to protest their community has too many battery energy storage systems (BESS) in their area with a flood of ‘ill-conceived applications’.

Between 29.5% and 44.7% of all BESS unit planning applications have been proposed within the community council area, which is home to less than 900 people. Much the the local demand is fuelled by the need to store energy on the main powerlines between Scotland and England.

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Community Council chair Bob Hope, in the letter to government ministers, explained: “It has now reached a point where this is not a Just Transition to net zero – for our community it is unjust.”

He also stated that the community has ‘united en masse to object’ to further battery storage developments. Mr Hope also claimed there was ‘sharp practice’ on behalf of developers looking to build battery storage units.