A war of words has broken out over plans to build a major windfarm at a famous Buchan landmark.
Opponents and supporters of the planned 12-turbine development at Mormond Hill, near Strichen, have clashed over claims the majority of locals are in favour of the scheme.
More than 400 people have contacted Aberdeenshire Council planners about the project, which is being led by Turriff-based developer Muirden Energy.
Letters and e-mails supporting the plan outweigh those against, planning officers have confirmed.
Opponents say most support comes from outside the Buchan area, however.
The Mormond Hill Action Group, which was formed to fight the plan, spoke out after trawling through all 416 representations. Spokeswoman Barbara-Ann Burnett claimed local people had written to reject the scheme by a margin of nearly two to one.
“We are delighted with this result,” she said.
“The response from locals to the threat of a windfarm on Mormond Hill has been overwhelming with a massive 178 people taking time to lodge objections to the planning department – 88% of whom come from within a 10-mile radius of Mormond Hill.”
She added: “We were initially disappointed that the bare figures seemed to show a majority of support letters.
“However, on detailed examination of the responses it soon became apparent that the vast majority of supporters are from further afield.”
She said of the 223 letters and e-mails in favour of the windfarm, 140 lived outwith 10 miles of the site.
“The people who count, local people, those who will be directly affected by the windfarm, have come out strongly against the project,” said Miss Burnett.
Last night Muirden development manager Alex Fowlie hit back.
He said: “The main things we noticed when going through the letters was multiple letters from the same household against (the plan), whereas the vast majority of supporting letters were from different households and there are a large number of letters from concentrated areas where people had objected to previous schemes.
“I would reject the group’s breakdown of letters and noticed that the representation from the closest house (to the scheme) is in fact in support of the proposal.”