Major infrastructure should not be assessed by fragments, rumours or guesswork. Communities need clear information, fair process and a public record that can be checked.
What we know
- The first SSEN Strathbogie Hub feedback deadline has passed.
- Public scrutiny continues.
- The Deveron Valley is not empty land.
- Cumulative impact matters.
- Associated infrastructure must be clarified.
- Public trust matters.
- Communities need the full map, not fragments spread across separate files and processes.
- SSEN’s Shetland HVDC Link 2 page says the Landfall and Northern Hub information-event feedback period is open until 21 August 2026.
- The proposed Beauly–Blackhillock–New Deer–Peterhead 400kV OHL is with the Energy Consents Unit as ECU00005165 and the case status is listed as referred to DPEA.
- DPEA case TRL-270-2 is listed as a Section 37 transmission-line inquiry for the Beauly to Peterhead OHL.
What we are checking
- The nature and extent of any strategic dependency between the Beauly–Peterhead OHL and the proposed Strathbogie Hub.
- Whether late written routes, observer routes or correspondence-list routes remain open in the OHL inquiry process.
- Reported concerns about land loss, property acquisition, housing impacts and rural displacement in other affected areas.
- Netherton / Buchan pattern evidence and what it may tell us about associated infrastructure questions.
- Reported local concern about battery-storage developer interest near a future Rivestone substation area.
- Whether BESS, private wire, data-centre demand, further substations or other associated development are ruled out, reasonably foreseeable, enabled or being left outside current public framing.
- Wider questions about how local evidence is preserved, categorised and used in consultation and decision-making.
What we are asking
- How are all shortlisted Strathbogie Hub sites being compared?
- Has cumulative impact been assessed as one whole picture?
- What associated infrastructure is ruled out, reasonably foreseeable, enabled or outside scope?
- What happens to the Strathbogie Hub case if related infrastructure is refused, delayed, rerouted, undergrounded, materially changed or significantly conditioned?
- How is local evidence preserved and handled?
- Has each site been future climate stress-tested?
- Who owns, who profits, who carries risk, who loses land, who gains capacity, and what public benefit is secured locally?
- What level of transparency is being provided to communities compared with developers, land interests and asset owners?
Why this matters
Communities should not be expected to respond to major infrastructure through guesswork.
If information is fragmented across separate projects, authorities, consultations and technical chapters, the burden falls unfairly on communities to reconstruct the real picture.
The whole picture should not have to be guessed from fragments.
How you can help
You can help by sharing local knowledge, forwarding relevant documents, telling us about notices, meetings or consultation gaps, signing the petition, and joining the email list for updates and downloadable tools.
Useful official links
We will continue to update this page as evidence develops. Save the Deveron Valley is committed to a careful, evidence-led, publicly accountable approach.