Wind farm cash boost for Kintyre school transport

Leading renewable energy developer RES has pledged significant financial support to the Tarbert Academy Parent Council to fund additional school transport. RES, the developer behind Freasdail Wind Farm near Whitehouse, presented a cheque for £1,680 to the Parent Council at the school on 2nd September.

Through its engagement with the local communities around the Freasdail project, RES was made aware of a gap in the funding for school buses to transport Kintyre pupils from after school activities back to their local communities, specifically Tayinloan and Whitehouse. This gap in provision has often meant that a number of school children have missed out on extracurricular activities through a lack of available funded school transport later in the day.

Zofia Sloan of the Tarbert Academy Parent Council said “This donation from RES will enable children in more rural areas to take part in after school activities, who otherwise wouldn’t have been able to do so.”

Neil Martin, RES Project Manager, said “RES always seeks to work with, and benefit, local good causes as part of our longer term commitment to communities that host our projects. We are delighted to provide Tarbert Academy with the resources to offer additional funded school transport. RES continues to work closely with various local groups and we hope to be able to continue to be able to support important initiatives such as this through our proposed Community Benefit Fund, if Freasdail Wind Farm is approved.”

This latest donation from RES continues its ongoing commitment to the area. Once operational, Freasdail Wind Farm will bring a Community Benefit package of £5,000 per installed megawatt to the local area, which will represent around £110,000 annually. £66,000 every year will be offered to local residents and businesses through RES’ innovative Local Electricity Discount Scheme (LEDS) and the remaining £44,000 will go into the Community Benefit Fund to be invested in local projects.