Public have their say over controversial storage site

A PUBLIC meeting could be held this month over a controversial plan for a development in Helensburgh’s green belt and next to a railway line.

YLEM Energy’s application to put a battery energy storage site (BESS) on a site near Ardencaple farm has attracted dozens of objection since it was submitted to Argyll and Bute Council.

A meeting of Helensburgh Community Council (HCC) heard mixed views from the body’s planning sub-group.

The group usually submits a single HCC response to local planning applications, but admitted they were split on this development.

HCC previously said they were in favour of the BESS development, but that was months before an actual application was filed.

The planning group asked the full community council to decide a response.

And then they decided it was better to put it to a public meeting to gauge a response.

The application has attracted more than 50 objections and no supporters so far.

A petition with nearly 70 signatures has also been sent to the council.

Energy developers say Scotland often has a surplus in wind energy from onshore and offshore turbines, while there has been consistent criticism that infrastructure has not been upgraded to help deliver Scottish renewable energy into the UK grid.

As a result YLEM wants to build a battery energy storage facility where large amounts of energy can be stored before being delivered elsewhere in the country.

The company held two public consultation events in town last year to give members of the public a chance to ask questions about the proposals. In a letter to residents last year, YLEM, which is based in Manchester, said it has installed more than 400 megawatts of power generation and storage - enough to power a million homes.

HCC member Elizabeth Lambert said: “We attended the consultation and discussed as a community council, and at the time we said we had no objections.

“We cannot really swing round the other way.”

But Nigel Millar said: “We all want the battery farm, but not in there.

“We looked at it initially from a macro point of view. We have to listen to what people say.”

Ms Lambert replied: “We have to listen to everyone, not just objectors.”

Fellow community councillor Howard Green said the issues most important to people, such as disruption through Helensburgh for electricity lines leading to the BESS, were not in the application.

On the subject of concerns about noise from the site, he said: “It makes a noise like a washing machine and it’s completely harmless.”

Argyll and Bute councillor Mark Irvine (Independent, Lomond North), who sits on the local authority’s planning committee, said he couldn’t comment on the individual application. But he did say the Scottish Government needed to look at how the public gets involved in having a say on major infrastructure projects get input.

“That’s probably a national argument,” he added.

HCC agreed to aim to arrange a public meeting by the end of April.