Anyone sensible in Edinburgh was probably outside enjoying the summer weather this weekend. However, it's perhaps a measure of how strong local concerns are about the proposed Forth Energy Biomass plant on Leith docks that around 40 local residents braved the City Chambers to attend a Planning Aid Scotland led workshop on how the planning system deals with large energy proposals. Most of those in attendance had a link to one of the community councils - although representatives from Greener Leith, Leith Links Residents Association and Port of Leith Housing Association were also there too.

Unlike most planing applications, the Forth Energy Biomass proposal will be decided by the Scottish Government via the Energy Consents Unit. The aim of the workshop was primarily to help people understand how decisions will be made about the Biomass plant, who will make them, and when local people will have an opportunity to participate in the decision making process.

The Leith Neighbourhood Partnership should be congratulated for funding the workshop, as this is the first time that an application of this type has been made within the City of Edinburgh Council area - indeed, it transpired that there is not one planner in the council with direct experience of this process either. 

In a nutshell, there are five main stages to the decision making process. We try to give a brief description of each stage below. You can download our notes from the workshop here.

Initial Enquiry/Scoping

During this stage the developer works together with the Scottish Government to identify the issues that the a full application should take into account. The only statutory consultees are the Local Authority, SEPA and SNH. However, it's best practice to consult more widely. Forth Energy have completed this stage. The related documents are here:

• Forth Energy Scoping Statement and Addendum.
• Greener Leith submission to Leith scoping consultation.
• Greener Leith blog posts on other organisations responses to the Leith scoping consultation: "The Questions Forth Energy Must Answer & "Biomass PR Fail"
• Scottish Government "General Biomass Scoping Advice"
• Scottish Government "Port of Leith Biomass Scoping Opinion"

Application

In this phase, the developer formally submits a complete application to the Energy Consents Unit. All the documents should be available for public view, and this must be advertised.

Public and community groups have the right to comment on upon the proposal - but Local Authority, SNH and SEPA are only statutory consultees. No statutory requirement for community engagement, although this is regarded as 'best practice'.

If the Local Authority objects, and there’s no way to come to resolution, then the Scottish Minister must call a public enquiry.

Forth Energy are currently preparing a full application for Leith, and are due to submit it later this year.

Determination

This is where it starts to get complicated! The Energy Consents Unit at the Scottish Government takes account of all the information provided by the developer and all the responses recieved from the statutory consultees and anyone else who formally submits an opinion on the proposal.

They then make a recommendation to the Scottish Minister responsible who is Jim Mather MSP.

If the Scottish Government gives consent for the plant to go ahead, this means that the proposal has "in principle" permission to be built - and it has "deemed planning permission".

However, consent is usually given with conditions attached - and it then falls to the local authority planning committee to come to agreement with the developer on how those conditions shall be fulfilled. This is the last stage of the process. 

Discharge of Conditions

Before development can commence the local authority and the developer must negotiate together on how the detail of the conditions attached to the consent.

Helpfully, Forth Energy, in their presentation to Dundee councillors produced the flow chart below to illustrate this process.

Of course the diagram above assumes that eventually the process leads to 'Consent to Build.' We learnt at the workshop that if the City of Edinburgh Council objects to the consent at the 'application stage' then this will force a public enquiry into the proposal. A process that could take many, many more months and may of course lead to the application being dismissed.

From what we understand from local councillors who attended a separate briefing last week from Forth Energy, the current proposals for Leith are pretty similar to the ones outlined in their Scoping documents. So, despite the virtually universal local consensus that the proposed plant for Leith is too large, and in the wrong place - Forth Energy seem determined to proceed.

Whilst the Edinburgh briefing to councillors has not yet appeared on the Forth Energy website, a briefing given to Dundee councillors on a similar (albeit smaller) plant proposed there has been uploaded - perhaps because they have produced some 'pretty pictures' of what it may look like, along with some spectacular architect speak.

In fact, when you read it, you'll no doubt want to move to Dundee just so that you can live next to it. Here's what the architects plan to do with the power station in Dundee:

"Utilize the potential of transparency and light to create a marker on the Dundee skyline and Tay
estuary beyond symbolic of a sustainable future.

Recognize the unique qualities of the site on the water’s edge, evoking the imagery of Dundee’s maritime past whilst giving a glimpse of its future.

The metaphor of the long ship, the Discovery being used as a means of bringing order and identity to the disparate elements of the biomass plant.

Create a clear visual separation between the lower linear storage structures and the high level boiler equipment in order to reduce the sense of bulk and increase the drama of the architectural beacon.

Create a translucent ground level, to visually reduce the apparent height of the storage areas by increasing the horizontal emphasis, and give the sense the station is hovering above the quayside, about to begin a journey towards a more sustainable future."

Whilst we know that not all Dundonians are delighted about the prospect of living adjacent to a power station that appears to hover above them, we can only wait to see what the architects working for Forth Energy propose for Leith. Afterall, here Forth Energy have provided us with little more than a line drawing, drawn from a very long, long way away.

There's also one very interesting slide on page 13 called "ensuring sustainabiltiy', which you can see below. Read it, and tell us whether Forth Energy are now committed to only burning fuel from certified sustainable sources. It's very difficult to tell, and we wonder what impression someone might come away with after hearing this presentation. When we met them earlier this year, they declined to make a commitment to only use FSC certified wood, yet the FSC logo features now on their slides.

It wil be very interesting to see what 'agreed sustainability standards' really means when the full application is submitted to the Scottish Government. Afterall, it is rumoured that the proposed plant could attract more than £10,000 worth of public subsidy each hour that it operates.