The battle lines have been drawn up over plans to build a wind farm on a tract of farmland in Bower.

Unanimous opposition was tabled to the proposed 13-turbine venture at Durran Mains by 60 or so residents who attended a meeting on Friday evening organised by a local protest group.

The forum was arranged in the wake of the lodging of a planning application for the 19.5 megawatt development.

The plan runs counter to the renewable energy blueprint approved by the Highland Council, which earmarks the area for "local" schemes of less than five megawatts.

Scottish and Southern Electricity (SSE) insists its scheme can go ahead without any significant adverse impact. But a number of concerns surfaced at the meeting, which focused on the environmental impact assessment carried out by DP Energy Ireland Ltd (DPE).

Objectors maintain the study contains inaccuracies and fails to reflect how the three-bladed turbines would affect local people as well as wildlife in the area.

Alan Roberts, chairman of Durran Windfarm Action Group (DWAG), said: "The environmental impact assessment is inaccurate in many ways and shows how the developers are attempting to downplay the size, the status and the standing of the community of Bower."

The study claimed the settlement comprises no more than 150 people when he said there are over 250 dwellings and 400 electors. Mr Roberts, who also chairs Bower Community Council, said: "That is an example of how they are trying to demean the local area to give the impression that it doesn't really matter."

DWAG believes the assessment has failed to take account of 30 or so new houses - either built or planned - close to the wind site.

DPE counters this and says that all the new houses have gone ahead since the plans for the wind farm were known about.

Mr Roberts said much of the new housing is within the kilometre buffer zone set out in Government guidelines for wind-farm developments.

"Most of these are built and lived in - one is just 340 metres away from the site of one of the proposed turbines - and they were in position before this application came in."

Others at the meeting claimed DPE has severely underestimated the wildlife activity around the proposed turbine site.

The firm's 12-month bird survey concluded that the development would have a "barely noticeable" impact on any of the species found in the area.

It also reported no sightings of otters, badgers, wildcats or bats - though it conceded it is possible they could be present.

The firm points out that initial plans for 19 other turbines to the east of the site have been scrapped after it was found to be a common flight path for wintering geese and swans.

The wildlife audit came under fire from Mark Little, who farms at Hilliclay Mains.

He said: "I think it's absolute rubbish - I just don't believe it."

Mr Little said he logged bird movements last winter when he counted over 1000 geese and swans a month overflying the turbine site.

Said Mr Little: "They say they spent over 1000 hours on this study - I think they must have been half asleep most of the time."

Mr Little was similarly astonished that there had been no records of bats, wildcats, otters or badgers - all of which he said are in the area.

He was supported by near neighbour and nature lover Ben MacGregor.

"We regularly see wildcats near our home and you see them on the roads," he said. "There are wildcats here, despite what they say."

Mr MacGregor urged people to object to a development which he said would blight the area.

"This is being planned only because people want to make money out of it.

"I don't blame them for that as everyone wants to make money but this is going to rip the heart out of the county for the sake of a few megawatts of electricity."

Stuart Young, spokesman for Caithness Windfarm Information Forum, told the meeting that there are currently 45 turbines in operation in the Far North with a further 460 planned.

He said: "We have to fight really hard to keep the county as clear as we can from these developments if it's not going to be ruined by them."

He said if all the wind farms were to get the green light, electricity consumers would be forking out £150 million a year to subsidise the ventures.

Mr Roberts said the only beneficiaries from wind farms are the developers and the landowners.

He claimed that apart from the unacceptable impact on local people and the open vistas of Caithness, tourism would be hit and next-to-no employment created.

Said Mr Roberts: "People like VisitScotland should do some joined-up thinking on this.

"They are encouraging people to come to Caithness because of its wide open views but they never come along and oppose these [wind farm] schemes."

He said he knows of one regular visitor to the area who has made it clear he will not return of the wind farm proceeds.

"This year's tourist season has been poor - I think trade would virtually dry up if this development went ahead," stated Mr Roberts.

He added that his objection would also include the impact on a long cairn close to the western boundary of the turbine site.

Mr Roberts said Historic Scotland had objected to planning permission for the redevelopment of the ruin of a single-storey house in the vicinity. This led to the applicant having to shift to a nearby piece of ground which was screened from the cairn.

"Now we've got a proposal where one of these turbines is going to be a mere 200 metres away from the cairn."

Durran resident Jackie MacMillan said there is also concern about the potential damage to roads, hedges and walls and disruption caused during the construction phase.

Retired policeman Duncan Cumming, who lives at Corsback, said he has drawn the council to major errors in the environmental statement which he wants corrected before the application is taken any further.

Another local proposed staging a demo against the wind farm to make local opposition to it clear.

DPE's study concludes that the site is well-suited for the turbines.

It states: "It's a relatively small project by modern standards and yet is big enough to make a valuable contribution to the production of green electricity while not being of an overly dominant scale in the area."

The consultants claim opinion polls show wind farms have very little effect on tourism and point out that there are very few visitor attractions in the immediate vicinity of Durran.

They say there are plans to mitigate the effect the turbines would have on the cairn, rating the perceived impact on the ancient site as minor.

They add that residents stand to benefit from a community fund which would be set up.

The application for the 13 turbines - each with a blade-tip height of 91 metres - is to go before Highland councillors, probably early in the new year.