Farr residents vs. SSEN

Photo credit: Alex Banks/DC Thomson

Email to learn more: Strathnairn Community Council, secretary@strathnairncc.com

Residents in five households in Farr, 10 miles south of Inverness, have been relying on bottled water for over seven years due to contamination of their private water supplies, following SSEN development in 2018.

In 2024, Strathnairn Community Council learned that SSEN had not followed their own guidelines regarding protecting private water supplies during construction. The residents continued pushing for accountability from SSEN and also raised their case to their MSP, Deputy First Minister Kate Forbes.

In February 2026 the case was picked up by the Press & Journal. Kate Forbes MSP shared the article on her own Facebook page, with a further statement:

“…I got involved a couple of years ago, to press SSEN to support the community with a solution - connecting them to a new water supply. It’s a fraction of the cost of the billions being invested in upgrading the transmission line.

SSEN argue there is no evidence to support the assertion that it was their construction works of the pylon which affected the water supply.

But

• they didn’t do the necessary monitoring of the water supply before they started so there is no evidence that it DIDNT have an effect

• they forgot to include the water supply in the planning application even tho there is evidence they were informed about it

• there are requirements to rigorously monitor water supplies if construction work is happening within 250 metres - in this case it was 100 metres.

I have convened multiple meetings between local residents and SSEN over the last two years, and I am beyond frustrated, disheartened and unimpressed that SSEN have decided not to accept any responsibility at all or support the community.

At a time when communities across the Highlands are looking for evidence about how SSEN will work with local communities and neighbours, it’s extremely disheartening to see the community in Farr completely let down.”

SSEN states in the same article “…both SEPA and the Highland Council’s own environmental health officers have also concluded that there is no link between the development and the private water supply.” However, Farr residents continue to push for SSEN to take responsibility and to fund a new pipeline from the nearest Scottish Water mains system (in Balnafoich) to provide safe water to their community.