Plans to hold a meeting with the developer proposing to build two wind turbines at Dundee”s port before a planning application has been submitted have been abandoned, at least temporarily, by the city council.
Forth Energy has said it intends to submit a planning application to the council for two turbines up to 127 metres in height.
It is also looking to build a biomass plant at the port but that would not have to go through the council’s planning process and would be determined by the Scottish Government.
At the suggestion of Councillor Rod Wallace, convener of the development quality committee, a pre-application meeting with Forth Energy was arranged by officials for May 17. This was to give councillors a factual briefing on the proposals for the wind turbines and the biomass plant.
However, Councillor Fraser Macpherson and Lord Provost John Letford said they would not attend such a meeting if it dealt with the turbines as they were concerned that it could be seen to compromise the impartiality of the planning process and make the public think that Forth Energy was being given an unfair advantage over objectors.
In light of the points raised, a meeting was held involving Mr Wallace, chief executive David Dorward, city development director Mike Galloway and the council’s senior legal official Patricia McIlquham.
The outcome of the meeting was that a briefing on the biomass plant will still be held but it has not been decided whether or not to go ahead with a similar one for the turbines.
While the council is a statutory consultee for the biomass proposal and will be asked for its view, it is not involved in making a decision about whether or not it should go ahead.
As Forth Energy has announced that it will be holding a two-day public consultation on the biomass plant proposal in the Overgate Centre on May 20 and 21 it has been agreed to put back the briefing for councillors on that issue until May 26.
A council spokesman said, “The briefing for elected members has been postponed until after the public have had the opportunity to hear first hand from Forth Energy about the plans on the biomass plant.
“Elected members will get exactly the same information about the biomass plant as the general public.”
He said the council would determine any planning application which comes forward for the wind turbines.Later decisionAny decision on a future briefing for councillors about the turbines will be taken at a later stage.
Mr Wallace said he would still like to have a briefing on the turbines as he believed it was in the spirit of the new planning legislation.
He acknowledged some members had concerns about such a meeting and it was up to them to decide whether to attend or not.
Mr Macpherson welcomed the fact that the matter had been reconsidered and that the briefing which is to be held will deal only with the biomass plant.
If it was decided to also hold a briefing on the wind turbines, he added, the concerns he has raised would remain and he would not attend.
Earlier, the lord provost spoke about his unease at the idea of a briefing on the turbines and said he would not be going if it went ahead.
Mr Letford said he had sought advice from legal officials at the council when Forth Energy ran a two-day meeting in Craigiebank Church to outline proposals for the turbines to the local community.
He was advised not to attend that event and he saw no difference between it and the briefing.
“I am sure, if this meeting takes place, it will send out the wrong message to the public and it would appear to be favouring developers before it (the application) came to committee,” he said.