Copyright dailyrecord
Plans for an energy storage system in Blackwood have been referred to the Scottish Government following council approval despite a number of objections. Councillors on the Planning Committee today (October 28) heard of an extensive consultation on an application that has been made to the Scottish Government for a solar and Battery Energy Storage System in Blackwood. The purpose of the report presented was to present the consultation on the plans to councillors and to vote on whether or not the council would recommend the plans. Council officials stated that the plans were in line with both national and local policy, however, councillors made calls to recommend refusal due to a number of concerns as well as a number of objections. The proposed development involves a solar battery energy storage system as well as ancillary infrastructure, it would be located in a self-contained area on the northern side of the access road through Blackwood Estate and consist of 48 units and 12 transformers. Elected members raised a number of concerns relating to the location of the proposals. Councillor Ross Lambie (Clydesdale South), who called for the council to recommend rejecting the application, raised his issues with the plans. He said: “Like all these energy applications, I review the information on the portal before coming and this one, we have five energy applications today, and this one jumps out for two reasons. One is the site and the other is the amount of objections. “So the site itself is the Blackwood estate which is a historic country estate essentially, and at the centre of it there is an ancient woodland which is community owned which recently has an international award for environmentalism, one of only four in Scotland awarded by Nature Scot. “The other reason is that it has jumped out at me as the number of complaints, when you look on the portal, you can see 642 public objections against this.” Councillor Ralph Barker (Clydesdale East), backed his call, and raised his concerns. He said: “It’s not so much the number of objections, it’s the quality of objections and the planning issues which we try to comply with really did not envisage this sort of extensive development. “I have very serious concerns about this, but it should be tested in this committee.” Following a consultation on the plans, a number of objections were raised including the Woodland Trust who objected based on the potential impact on ancient woodland and veteran trees and the Blackwood Estate Community Association objected due to concerns about overall need, adverse visual impact, cumulative impact, road safety, locational need, noise, impact on ecology and biodiversity and risk of flooding. Councillors ultimately decided in line with council officials who had no objection of consent, so the application will proceed to the Scottish Government for a final decision. *Don't miss the latest headlines from around Lanarkshire. Sign up to our newsletters here . And did you know Lanarkshire Live had its own app? Download yours for free here .
