T in the Park organisers say music lovers will be able to enjoy the festival in Kinross-shire for years to come.
Fears were raised it may have to move because of safety concerns about a major gas pipeline running through the Balado site. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has a long-standing objection to the arrival of almost 100,000 audience members and staff on the area each year because of the Forties pipeline running through the area from the North Sea to Grangemouth.
The HSE says a rupture of the line would place tens of thousands of lives at risk a concern previously dismissed by the authorities in granting permission for T in the Park (to run from July 5 this year) to go ahead.
While acknowledging chances of a disaster are small, the public safety body has ramped up the pressure to find an alternative site, after the organisers, DF Concerts, applied to Perth and Kinross Council to continue at Balado for two more years.
In a letter to the authority, the HSE has stated it will not pass the matter to the Scottish Government because plans are being drawn up to shift the site around.
It states: ”Extensive pre-planning meetings were held between the organisers of T in the Park, DF Concerts, Perth and Kinross Council, and HSE. No viable long-term site layout could be found that moved the population at the event far enough from the pipeline to reduce the risk to the public to a tolerable level. Other alternative risk reduction measures were considered. However, the only practical long-term solution identified was to relocate the T in the Park festival.”
However, a spokeswoman for T in the Park said this would merely mean realigning the site, rather than moving elsewhere.
She said: ”T in the Park has been in Kinross for 14 years and we are happy here. We will simply be redesigning the site in 2014, as we often do, which will take in some brand new fields in the same area. T in the Park is and always has been a safe event. It has passed every inspection by the authorities each year and continues to do so.”
The council’s development control committee is expected to endorse the move at its meeting on Wednesday.