CASH generated by a wind farm approved yesterday could be used to help locals buy and run Scotland's oldest pub.
Scottish Borders Council gave the green light to Novera Energy's plans to build 11 turbines between two tributaries of the River Tweed near Broughton in Peeblesshire.
The firm is believed to be prepared to put more than £40,000 annually for 25 yea
rs into a charitable fund to be spent for the benefit of the local community.
Members of the soon-to-be created Glenkerie Wind Farm Trust will decide how the money is spent.
But the cash windfall is being seen as an ideal opportunity to provide the funding to save the 400-year-old Crook Inn at Tweedsmuir, three miles away.
It was one of the first three coaching inns to be licensed in Scotland back in 1604 and is where Robert Burns penned his most politically incorrect poem, Sic A Wife As Willie Had, which lampoons the wife of a friend.
The pub is currently closed, but a company set up by local people was granted a right to buy it by the Scottish Government.
Tertia Waters, project director with Novera Energy, said the firm believed "support for the Crook Inn will meet the trust's criteria for allocating funds".
Novera expects to start construction next year and production in 2010 on the site.
The full article contains 234 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
