Officials had recommended the application be refused when it came before the local authority’s North planning applications committee in Inverness on Tuesday.
They said the 45.8m high structure to the north-west of the mart at Humberston Farm would be a blight on local views because it would be on a picturesque landscape of rounded hills with the backdrop of Ben Wyvis and visible from some distance.
Planners also reported the historic Hector MacDonald Memorial tower would be affected by its presence. Their recommendation for refusal came after the mart owner Dingwall and Highland Marts had the turbine proposal rejected by the council last year for the same reasons.
However, the committee voted 9-5 to grant the resubmitted plan which had attracted no objections.
Dingwall and Seaforth councillors on the committee were split 50/50 on the vote, with chairman David Chisholm and Peter Cairns both backing refusal, while their colleagues Margaret Paterson and Angela MacLean supported the mart turbine.
Cllr Chisholm said the local authority had offered to discuss building a larger turbine closer to the mart which would be less visually obtrusive, while Cllr Cairns called for it to be sited in a better location.
Another committee member, Cllr Biz Campbell, launched an impassioned plea to approve the application and said it was vital to support the economic growth of the company.
The turbine would help it cut power costs and have a subsequent positive knock-on effect for crofters on the west coast, said Cllr Campbell, who moved the motion which defeated the recommendation.
“As I travel to Inverness to go to council meetings I pass wind turbines on the skyline at Invermoriston and I think they are like angels spreading their wings to the heavens praying for wind,” said Cllr Campbell (Wester Ross, Strathpeffer and Lochalsh), who added there had been no opposition from statutory consultees like the RSPB.
Cllr Paterson accepted it was going to be a big turbine but recalled that the construction of the mart was heavily criticised at the time.
“Many people said it was going to be horrendous, a carbuncle, but it’s not and it provides work for a great many people,” she said.
Cllr MacLean pointed out that no community councils had objected.
