September 15, 2016
Scotland

Wind turbine at Arbroath facility refused

Arbroath Herald | 14 September 2016 | www.arbroathherald.co.uk

The proposed wind turbine at the Bairds Malt facility in Arbroath has been refused by Angus Council Development Management Review Committee.

Bairds Malt is a long-standing and significant employer in the local area, having 57 Angus employees and supply contracts with more than 1000 farms; 230 of them spread throughout Angus.

It has operated in Arbroath since 1970, with a new facility opening in 2010.

Along with their Tayside based construction partner Kilmac, Bairds Malt submitted their application to develop a medium-sized single turbine at the plant to Angus Council in December 2014.

The application was refused by the council under delegated powers in March this year, with Bairds Malt submitting an appeal in June.

This appeal has now been refused in a 3-0 vote by the Development Management Review Committee (DMRC).

The company said if consented, the turbine would have minimised its energy costs through the generation of renewable energy on-site.

The energy consumption at the facility is a significant proportion of the sites production costs and the turbine would have seen this electricity consumption reduced by a third, it added.

Richard Broadbent, technical director at Bairds Malt, said: “We are disappointed by the decision of the DMRC to refuse our application.

“Bairds Malt and our partners have been working closely with both the community and council officials on this development for over four years.

“Whilst we accept the DMRC decision, we believe we have presented a strong technical case for the development and do not agree with the council’s view on potential adverse landscape, visual and cumulative effects of the turbine.

“Bairds Malt brings significant investment into our community and provides employment for many families in the area.

“Our proposed turbine would have enabled us to significantly reduce our costs, allowing us to maintain our level of business and secure a sustainable future for the facility.

“As a company we will now have to consider alternative methods to remain competitive in an increasingly challenging marketplace.

“I would like to thank all of those who have been involved in the project throughout the last four years, we will now review and consider our next steps to making our plant as operationally efficient as possible.”

URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2016/09/15/wind-turbine-at-arbroath-facility-refused/