Wild Land News no 58, Autumn 2003

Shieldaig Hydro Scheme Article

Division within Highland Council

On 20 August, the Planning and Development committee of Highland Council voted not to object to HLP's plans - against the advice of their Director of Planning. (You can read his report to the committee on the low impact website "latest" section)

However, the hearing to decide on the Council's response to the application is to be repeated in front of the entire Council on Wednesday 11th of September. The decision not to oppose the application has therefore NOT yet been passed to the Scottish Executive. It is suggested that this unusual event reflects unhappiness within the Council at the way the Planning and Development Committee handled the meeting.

An account of the meeting of 20 August, from an objector who was there, is given below:

"Dear All, Yesterday afternoon was another crucial stage in our efforts to save Shieldaig and Flowerdale from the proposed hydro scheme developments. I'm sorry to report that the Highland Council Planning, Development, Tourism & Europe Committee approved the application (20 votes to 8).
A full hearing was held yesterday afternoon in the council chambers, Inverness.
Firstly the Principle Planner introduced the application. He and the Director of Planning were strongly recommending to the Councillors that the application should be rejected.
HLP then gave a presentation on their plans. Things were looking good when they were cut short for mentioning input of funds to the community because this 'should not be a material consideration'. But, then they dropped a major bombshell.
HLP held up a letter from Ross Finnie stating that neither SEPA nor SNH had a right to object to the scheme. 'They are only statutory consultees and as such their role is to advise the Scottish Exec.' This was news to SNH and SEPA who were next in line to give presentations. (It clearly was not news to some Councillors who capitalised on it and threw the whole hearing into disarray.) Next Kinlochewe/Torridon Community Council presented their objection. Then came SEPA and SNH, neither of whom had any prior knowledge of Ross Finnie's letter to HLP.
Then came our chance... MCofS, NTS, RSPB, JMT and a Gairloch Local had a total of 10 minutes, 2 mins each to say our piece. I think all of our presentations went pretty well and were generally well received. The 5 objectors got a minor grilling after this, before HLP were allowed a final say. They 'had nothing further to add'.
There then followed a 45-minute debate amongst Councillors. The local Gairloch Councillor gave a long speech in favour of the application, which dwelt heavily on the issue of "incomers verses the local indigenous population". The Torridon Councillor went against his Community Council's view (Torridon) and also supported the application. A vote was held - the result being 20:8 against.
That brings you up to date... It's not over yet. The final decision lies with the SE in up to 3 months time."

With thanks to the Shieldaig Lochs objectors for the above information.

Footnote: at the re-run of the hearing on 11th September, Highland Council voted in favour of the scheme by 32 votes to 27.