THE company behind the Little Raith Wind Farm project near Mossmorran has hit back at critics who slammed extension plans.

Jonny Kennedy, managing director of Kennedy Renewables, said he was “disappointed” that his company had been attacked with “such intemperate language” over the proposals to increase the nine existing turbines by adding another six.

The fierce criticism in last week’s Press came from James Glen, secretary of Lochgelly community council and who runs the community website Loch of Shining Waters and Linda Holt, spokesperson for national anti-wind farm campaign group Scotland Against Spin.

Mr Kennedy said, “Kennedy Renewables have regularly made ourselves available to all interested parties since we bought the site in 2010, however there appears to be a reluctance by Mr Glen and Ms Holt to talk to us directly.

“I offered last year, when we announced the extension project, to go with Mr Glen to meet with any local resident in Lochgelly who may have felt that the amenity of their home was being compromised by our existing Little Raith Wind Farm.

“However, I am yet to be taken up on my offer. That offer remains open to Mr Glen if he wishes to accept.

“I believe this would be a far better way to address any concerns that the local community may have and it would allow me to judge for myself any issues that are perceived to be having an impact on the community.” He went on, “Our extension project will allow us to deliver a further £2.5 million of community benefit funding to the local area as well as strengthen our partnerships with Cowdenbeath FC and Fife College.

“It will ensure that we can build on the £1.23m in community benefit we have already committed to date, not to mention the £20m we have invested in the Fife economy with our existing wind farm.

“With an extension to Little Raith Wind Farm we can and will do much more for the local community and the wider Fife economy.” In last week’s Press, Mr Glen attacked the “breathtaking arrogance” and “unbridled greed of Kennedy Renewables and landowner the Wemyss Estate”.

Referring to the financial incentives, Ms Holt had said, “Bribes like this make it much harder for people to decide on an application on purely planning grounds, which is of course what the developer wants, especially if the planning grounds for a wind farm like this one are so weak.”