Public consultation session on Hoy Wind Farm Proposals in the New Year.

A public consultation drop-in session is due to be held in Hoy early in the new year to update the community on plans for a wind farm on the island.

It was announced in April that the Council planned to undertake a detailed investigation to see if land to the west of Lyness would be suitable for a substantial wind energy development.

Detailed work has been ongoing on this assessment since then, including discussions with Scottish Natural Heritage, bird and ground studies, with updated plans to be unveiled at the session.

The drop-in session takes place in the North Walls Centre community room on Tuesday 8 January between 1pm and 7pm. Staff from the Council's Strategic Projects team and local elected members, will be on hand to discuss the plans in more detail and answer any queries local people may have.

The site the Council has been looking at lies at and to the south of Wee Fea, the hill behind Lyness which contains underground wartime oil tanks.

Council Leader James Stockan is a Councillor for Stromness and the South Isles. He said: "Since April our Strategic Projects team has been looking at at how best to take forward a major project of this kind. As we expected, with any wind farm development, our announcement attracted a range of views – and these have been taken into consideration when developing the plans.

"We undertook to keep the local and wider community closely involved as the project progressed and we're looking forward to heading out to Hoy to discuss revised plans with local folk."