Highland Council meeting agenda

Highland Council

Hearing - 12 April 2006

Council Chamber

BUSINESS

Members are reminded that, in the determination of a planning application which is the subject of a Hearing, to be entitled to participate in any vote, you must be present throughout all of the proceedings, including the site inspection.

Declarations of Interest – Members are asked to consider whether they have an interest to declare in relation to any item on the agenda for this meeting. Any Member making a declaration of interest should indicate whether it is a financial or non-financial interest and include some information on the nature of the interest. Advice may be sought from Officers prior to the meeting taking place.

PRELIMINARIES

The Committee is invited to consider this application in accordance with the Hearings Procedure, a copy of which is circulated for ease of reference.

There is circulated Report No. PDET32/06 dated 22 March 2006 by the Director of Planning and Development on a consultation by the Scottish Executive on an application under the Electricity Act 1989 to construct a 400 kV overhead transmission line between Beauly and Denny to replace the existing 132 kV line, which would then be dismantled. An extension of time for the Council’s comments has been granted to 30 April 2006.

The report recommends that:

(a) the Council affirm its support for the principle of a high voltage electricity transmission system between Beauly and Denny as a key infrastructure project to support the objectives of the Highland Structure Plan and the Draft Highland Renewable Energy Strategy;

(b) the Scottish Executive be requested to make no decision on the submitted application until the results of the UK Government’s Electric and Magnetic Fields SAGE Group have been considered;

(c) the Council recommend that any approval for a high voltage overhead electricity line must adopt the precautionary principle in relation to a minimum separation distance between occupied property and the line, along with compliance with international standards;

(d) the Council object to the submitted application because, in the four specific lengths identified in the report, there are significant adverse amenity impacts;

(e) additional information should be provided at this stage to allow the Council as Roads Authority to assess the likely effects of both construction and dismantling traffic on the local roads network and affected communities;

(f) the Council request that, in the event of the application being approved, certain existing 132 kV tower lines should be replaced by wooden pole lines to lessen the environmental impact in areas where there would be paralleling of 132 kV and 400 kV routes, or through parts of the National Park adjacent to the A9;

(g) the Council request that the Scottish Executive convene early meetings between the applicant, affected Local Authorities, Cairngorms National Park Authority, Scottish Natural Heritage, Scottish Environment Protection Agency and Historic Scotland to explore and report on alternative overhead or undergrounding routing to the submitted application, with a view to avoiding the need for a Public Inquiry and/or reducing the objections to be considered at an Inquiry.