Almost two years after rejection, a controversial hydro scheme could return to Highland Perthshire.
New plans for the project at Urlar Burn, close to the Birks of Aberfeldy will be unveiled today at a public exhibition.
Developer Green Highland Renewables was forced to go back to the drawing board after councillors deferred a decision on plans to rent common good ground for the initiative.
They told the Perth-based company that the proposal could not go ahead until several issues were resolved, including conducting a tourism impact study and taking a more ”co-operative approach” to ensure that the needs of the people of Aberfeldy were met.
The work carried out by Green Highland Renewables in a bid to allay these concerns has been detailed in an extensive report released at the end of 2011.
One of the main fears about the Birks of Aberfeldy hydro scheme was that it would dissuade tourists from visiting the area as the flow of Urlar Burn would be reduced from its peak of 422 litres per second to a constant flow of 112 litres per second.
A survey was carried among 400 people. While the general response showed that visitors’ enjoyment of the Birks would not be considerably affected by the strength of flow, 87% indicated that they would find their trip more satisfying if the falls were at their peak, compared to 78% saying they would still have a good visit if the flow was reduced.
Local tourism group Explore Aberfeldy has also asked for the abstraction regime to be re-visited to allow more water to be left in Urlar Burn.
The report states: ”To this end, the hands-off flow which must always be left in the burn has been increased from 81 to 112 litres per second. This is an increase of 38% and represents an additional 18 days without any abstraction.”
As well these concerns about the actual falls, fears were also raised about the impact the run-of-river scheme would have on small cow-wheat, a rare herb.
The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) originally imposed a precautionary measure of an annual two-month shutdown between March and May on the recommendation of Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH).
A study was then set up by Professor Jones of Dundee University, in consultation with SNH, the Small Cow-Wheat Steering Group and Alistair Godfrey, the countryside management officer at Perth and Kinross Council.
This showed that the humidity range tolerated by the herb would not be impacted by changes to the flow of the burn and SNH has lifted the two-month ban.
Other changes include a reduction in the lease from 99 years to 50 years.
The rent has also been increased, although it will remain at 10% of gross revenue for the first half of the term, rising to 15% for the subsequent 25 years.
These matters will all be considered by locals as part of a poll being run by the community council following today’s public exhibition, which takes place between 1pm and 7pm.
An open meeting will be held afterwards from 7.30pm and members of the public will then have three weeks to put their views across.
Chairman Eric Slorance said: ”If the people of Aberfeldy are in favour of this proposed scheme going ahead, then that will be the message that we will pass on to the Aberfeldy common good fund committee.”