from Sunday Herald, 23 October 2011
A planning application for a new £3 billion coal-fired power station at Hunterston in North Ayrshire is “riddled with errors” about pollution, carbon capture and wildlife, according to environmental groups.
The application - submitted by Ayrshire Power, a company formed by Clydeport’s owners, the Peel Group - makes a series of mistakes that undermine its credibility, they say. It manages to mix up the majestic white-tailed sea eagle, which has a wingspan of 2.5 metres, with the humble wheatear, whose wings stretch less than a third of a metre.
Dr Richard Dixon, the director of WWF Scotland, described the application as the worst he had seen during his 18 years working in the environmental movement. “It has contradictory figures, sloppy mistakes and uncertainty about the most basic parameters of the plant,” he told the Sunday Herald.
“Ayrshire Power can’t tell the difference between the UK’s largest eagle and a small moorland bird, they don’t know what our climate targets are, they can’t divide one number by another and they get their scientific units wrong by a factor of thousand. I wouldn’t buy a used car off them, let alone let them build a power station.”
The application for a plant to generate enough electricity for up to three million homes by burning coal and other fuels is due to be considered at a hearing convened by North Ayrshire Council tomorrow. The council will meet on 9 November to decide whether or not to back the plant, which will then have to be considered by Scottish ministers.
Over 20,000 objections have been lodged against the plant, making it the most-opposed application in Scottish planning history. A legal challenge by a local bird watcher, Marco McGinty, was rejected by the Court of Session earlier this month.
If it is built, it will be the first new coal station since the 1970s. But since the collapse last week of the £1 billion plan to test carbon capture and storage at the ageing Longannet coal station in Fife, environmentalists are convinced that the Hunterston plant is doomed.
“The dream of clean coal power is over,” declared Dixon. “All the major power companies are getting out of coal. It is almost impossible to believe that the Hunterston power station would ever be built, even if it gets government permission.”
The Hunterston planning application originally said that 15% of the carbon pollution would be captured and stored, but that was later corrected to 25%. A study by independent consultants for WWF has now put the figure at 17%.
The application says that Scotland’s aim is to cut climate pollution 60% by 2050, though in fact the target is 80%. And it uses the wrong units for the carbon dioxide intensity of the UK power sector, meaning its figures are out by a thousand times.
According to the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), the Hunterston application also exaggerates levels of existing sulphur pollution on nature conservation sites by a factor of five. This has the effect of making its contribution look smaller and less damaging.
The environmental surveys done for Ayrshire Power significantly underestimate the numbers and species of birds present at the Hunterston site, RSPB Scotland says. The codes for white-tailed sea eagles and black grouse are confused with those for wheatears and blackcaps.
“This development would result in the destruction of over 30 hectares of important wildlife habitat, yet the applicant’s attempts to assess what wildlife will be affected is riddled with errors,” said Zoe Clelland, RSPB Scotland’s senior conservation officer.
“The application gives us no confidence that the applicant understands the full implications of the damage this proposal would have for this nationally important wildlife site or the wider marine environment.”
Ayrshire Power did not deny that mistakes had been made, though a company spokesman pointed out that the application was “enormously complex”. He added: “A small number of minor errors have absolutely no bearing on what we believe is a compelling and robust proposal.”
I wish the people of North Ayrshire the best of luck in their fight against such a proposal,but knowing what has happened here in my part of the county of EAST LOTHIAN.
i LIVE IN WHAT THEY CALL THE EAST LAMMERMUIRS WARD 3,in a small village known as INNERWICK, this was a nature conservation before the cement industry came on the scene,this was in 1960,it wouldn't have been so bad had they kept to their plans,the agreement made was once the SOUTH QUARRY had extracted all of the limestone in that quarry.
The farmer of that land had met the Scottish secretary of state in the year 1960,he was known as JOHN S MACLAY,the secretary signed a promise saying that the land would be returned to arable use and the farm couold continue.
This promise was not upheld and the South Quarry is one of the biggest landfill sites in Europe,this site is run by VIRIDOR.
Then we now have the East and WEST QUARRY that goes right along our once beautiful coastline,how was this allowed to destroy all of our history old and ancient.
This was the BATTLE SITE OF THE BATTLE OF DUNBAR IN 1650, when the scots suffered a terrible defeat by Cromwells army,over 3000 men died on this very spot and 10,000 taken prisoner and frog marched to DURHAM CATHEDRAL,THEN SOLD AS SLAVES AND TRANSPORTED TO THE USA AND THE CARIBEAN.Now after what they have done here lets you see that this has already been approved and it will go ahead as planned.
Posted by: Alexander Lough, | 23 October 2011 at 12:46 PM