Gloria Wilson,66, has found she could be losing money after finding layers of lime on her solar panels.
While sunbathing during April’s heatwave Gloria noticed lime dust on her solar powered water feature had stopped it from working.
And now the checkout assistant is adamant her rooftop solar panels have also been effected.
The mother-of-one, of Tarbolton, told the Post: “A fog came over the village and we heard it was the farmers spreading lime.
“Then I noticed our water feature wasn’t working.
“I went over to its wee solar panel and it was covered in that lime, so I gave it a rub and it started working straight away.
“Then it dawned on me, what about my solar panels on my roof.
“I checked on them and they were thick with dust.
If it didn’t make the water feature work, I’m thinking what about them?
“People have phoned the environmental health because of the dust.
“They said it’s not harmful – but it’s harmful to our solar panels, it’s stopping us making the money that we should be making.”
Farmer Robert Vietch admitted to being the lime spreading culprit.
And after wind blew the dust into the village Robert knew it could only bring bad news.
He said: “It was just unfortunate that the wind direction was from the east.
“It wasn’t myself that spread it, it was a contractor we use who possibly wasn’t as diligent as I would have been.
“When I came home that day I could see the dust going over the village and I thought that’s not good – after all they are my neighbours.
“But its harmless. I’m not doing anything wrong, there had been an easterly wind for weeks, so what can I do?”
But it’s not health risks that Gloria is worried about.
She is much more concerned about the money she could be losing and would like to see farmers use different chemicals on their fields.
She said: “Can they not use something else?
“It might be alright for health, but it’s not alright for people’s wealth!
“There’s a lot of solar panels in the village and I’m just worried they aren’t working to their full potential. We didn’t get them put up there for nothing – we put them up there to make money.”
