Plans to operate a biomass plant in an Angus hamlet have been refused by a Scottish Government reporter at appeal.
Agents for construction firm RS Hill proposed a fuel briquette producing operation at its workshop and builder’s yard in Douglastown, on the A94 between Glamis and Forfar.
But Richard Dent of the Directorate for Planning and Environmental Appeals decided the hamlet’s 30 households could not be safeguarded from noise generated by changes to a base.
The firm appealed after the changes were refused by Angus Council committee on August 28 last year.
But in dismissing the appeal, Mr Dent said he was “concerned about a number of aspects of noise generation”.
He said: “The appellant has explained that the proposed biomass operation is a response to the current economic climate which has proved to be a testing time for the construction industry.
“I appreciate this argument but, on the other hand, it may well be that conditions will improve and activity in the construction industry will increase.”
The site is immediately to the west of Douglastown, the closest properties being less than 100 metres away.
Mr Dent states the development would breach Angus Local Plan Review policies ER11 (Noise Pollution) and S6 Development Guidelines, Schedule 1, which requires noise levels not to affect the amenity of existing properties.
Stipulations not to operate the log shredder and dryer simultaneously, with the former to be kept behind closed doors, are thought to be unenforceable.
As such, two conditions to mitigate noise would have to be removed and Mr Dent concludes “there can be no certainty that the level of noise emissions from the site could be maintained at a satisfactory level”.
The bid drew almost 40 letters of representation from 20 households before councillors rejected the plans in August.
Objector Peter Anderson said that the operation of the facility for the past months had been “like living with an open sawmill at the bottom of your garden”.