OBJECTORS to the proposed waste incinerator at Invergordon will next week have another say over controversial proposals to site the facility close to the town.
Scottish Government reporter Richard Dent is to hold a pre-examination meeting to decide how to proceed with the appeal by the incinerator firm against the Court of Session’s decision to quash permission for the scheme.
It will be held on Thursday, April 28, at 7pm in Invergordon Academy. Over 300 letters containing the agenda for the meeting have been sent to those who had previously made representations about the proposal.
At the meeting Mr Dent, of the Department for Planning and Environmental Appeals (DPEA), will seek the views of members of the public on whether the appeal should be determined by a public local inquiry, a hearing, or by written submissions. He will decide which course to adopt later.
The incinerator saga goes back to May 2008 when the company Combined Power and Heat (Highlands) Ltd (CPH) submitted an application to Highland Council to build an energy-producing waste incinerator at Cromarty Firth Industrial Park, Invergordon.
In August 2009, the council’s Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross planning applications committee rejected the application, despite a recommendation to approve by planning officials.
When CPH appealed to the Scottish Government, DEPA’s reporter allowed CPH’s request that it be dealt with by written submissions and on May 11 last year granted permission subject to 13 conditions.
However, the following month, Ross Estates Company challenged the decision and in January this year Scottish ministers quashed permission. Last month they delegated to decision to Scottish Government reporter Mr Dent.
