Plans to establish a 40MW battery energy storage facility near the Belle Craig roundabout on Glasgow Road have rightly caused outrage amongst local residents in Eaglesham and Waterfoot.
The initial application was refused by the council’s Planning Committee on Halloween last year.
However, a nightmare situation then occurred when Labour elected representatives and a former SNP Councillor, who now sits as an independent, made the bewildering decision to approve a second and almost identical application from the developer in April.
The council also took a bewildering decision in bringing the second application to the Planning Committee for consideration before the Scottish Reporter had even reached a verdict on the developer’s appeal to the initial rejection.
The Reporter’s ruling that the proposal failed key green belt planning policies and refusal of the appeal has naturally heighted local anger and frustration at how the council has handled this controversial issue.
I strongly objected to both the first and second applications for the battery energy storage facility and in previous months, I was delighted to join with a large number of my constituents, outside of the council’s Giffnock offices, to protest against the development.
Local people have campaigned heroically and with residents calling on the council to issue a revocation order to cancel the planning permission for the battery plant.
At a meeting of the East Renfrewshire full council in June, a motion submitted by Conservative councillors forced Labour and the SNP to agree that a future report would be brought forward to consider removing consent for the development.
The report centred on the legal and procedural steps of potentially revoking planning permission alongside possible compensation liabilities.
The paper was presented to a September meeting of the full council and it was set out in the report that should the council proceed with cancelling the planning consent, the financial costs of doing so are believed to be considerable.
At the council meeting, the Labour Administration moved a motion against issuing a revocation order.
Conservative councillors tabled an amendment calling for the decision on a possible revocation order to be deferred pending the outcome of a judicial review into the process that resulted in the award of planning consent for the development.
However, Labour and SNP councillors teamed up to vote down the Conservative amendment and removed it from consideration.
Whilst there are significant reported challenges of potentially issuing a revocation order, it should not have been taken off the table at the present moment.
It must also not be forgotten that this situation has only arisen because of the unacceptable decision of Labour and independent councillors to grant planning permission in the first place.
Subsequent to the award of planning consent for the battery plant, an application was submitted during the summer months for a large-sized solar farm on green belt land near Bonnyton Golf Club.
Consequently, the planning consent for the battery plant appears to have placed Eaglesham’s green belt at risk of considerable new development in future.
I also objected to the solar farm proposal and I will continue to highlight that the green belt in Eaglesham must be protected.
