Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Rory Colville, Robert G MacIntyre, Donnie MacMillan and James McQueen.

There were no declarations of interest.

Report by Head of Planning and Regulatory Services

The Chair welcomed everyone to the meeting and introductions were made. The Chair advised that the Committee had undertaken a site visit that morning and had looked at the site from many different aspects.

Iain Jackson, Governance Officer, outlined the procedure that would be followed at the meeting.  He advised that only those who identified themselves at the start of the meeting would be entitled to state their case and invited those who wished to speak to come forward and he took a note of their names. 

Planning

Richard Kerr – Principal Planning Officer

Mr Kerr advised that the application was for a marine salmon farm on the south coast of Loch Tuath and off the north coast of the isle of Gometra.  He advised that Gometra was a private island which had no road access and could only be accessed by foot or by boat from Ulva ferry.  Mr Kerr showed a slide which demonstrated the location of the site.  He advised that this was one of two applications by the Scottish Salmon Company, the other at Loch Scridain having been considered by the Committee in September and subsequently refused.  Mr Kerr advised that the Scottish Salmon Company was a well established company with sites throughout Argyll.  He advised that the application site was one of a number of sites that had been evaluated and discussed with consultees as possibilities but only those with the best prospects for success had resulted in applications.  Mr Kerr advised that the aqua culture was not subject to any special zoning like the land and advised that aqua culture applications were considered under Policy AQUA 1. He showed a number of slides showing the zoning and policies which applied to the land surrounding the application site explaining what these policies were. Mr Kerr showed the Committee a number of slides which demonstrated the layout of the fish farm, describing the construction in detail including the sizes of the cages and the materials used.  He advised of the stocking density and that there would be a 22 month production period with a 2 month maintenance and fallow period and that the site would be served by the Ulva Ferry shore base.  Mr Kerr advised that the cages would be served by underwater lighting in the second year of production which would point downwards and which would produce a surface glow when viewed from different aspects.  Mr Kerr provided the Committee with details of the feed barge which would be deployed at the site.

Mr Kerr advised that fish farm applications were the subject of a multi consent regime whereby planning was only one of 4 consents to be obtained.  He advised that consents must also be obtained from the Crown Estate for a sea bed lease; from SEPA for a license for the tonnage of fish to be held at the site with a view to controlling pollution and water quality; and from Marine Scotland to address issues with navigation, fish welfare and health.  He advised that there was an Environmental Statement accompanying this application and this was detailed at appendix A to the report of handling and he highlighted the key issues covered in this statement.  Mr Kerr told the Committee that the application had been the subject of a number of consultations, and that these were detailed on pages 1 – 4 of the report.  He highlighted that there had been no objections to the application by SEPA or Marine Scotland and that SNH had not formally objected but had raised concerns regarding landscape impact.  Mr Kerr gave a summary of the responses received by consultees.  He advised that there had been 26 representations of objection and 44 of support received with a further 2 letters being received 1 of support and another raising concerns.  Mr Kerr added that on Friday 2 November, he had received a letter from a firm of environmental lawyers on behalf of the owner of Gometra which raised the issue of a legal challenge should permission be granted by the Committee.  He suggested that this was a tactical ploy to inhibit due process and advised that he would cover his response to this at the end of his presentation.

Mr Kerr highlighted that the applicants had provided a response to the issues raised in objection to the application in their environmental statement, which raised no concerns; and reminded Members that consideration must only be given to matters which are material planning considerations. He advised that consultees had raised no significant concerns other than SNH who had raised concerns over visual impact in the National Scenic Area, but who had not raised a formal objection.

Mr Kerr showed Members a number of photographs with a super imposed fish farm on the site and also some views of the site from a boat and vantage points at a range of distances.  He showed slides showing zones of theoretical visibility which highlighted the influence of the fish farm on the National Scenic Area; and which showed the roads and access tracks highlighting the absence of any formal access route on the coast of Gometra above the site.

Mr Kerr advised that the Planning Section were recommending approval of the application and summarised the reasons for the recommendation which were also detailed on page 32 of the agenda pack.

Mr Kerr referred to the letter received on Friday 2 November from Environmental Law Chambers Ltd and advised that he would comment briefly on each of the 7 matters raised in the letter. 

In response to point 1 which claimed that it breaches EU law to allow SEPA to process the application outwith the EIA process given that the environmental statement accompanied the planning application and not the SEPA application he advised that both approvals were required separately and that there was no prescribed order in which to apply.  He advised that in this case SEPA went through the process in parallel with the planning application as part of the multi regulatory  ...  view the full minutes text for item 3.