AN environmental impact assessment is not required for plans to site a battery storage facility at a farm outside Helensburgh, council chiefs have said.

The proposal by Clive Fagg Planning, for land southeast of Ardencaple Farm at Rhu, would see a 49.9MW storage system provide supply to the National Grid.

The Friends of Duchess Wood stated the opinion that an assessment (EIA) was necessary, questioning the validity of YLEM Energy’s checklist for the planned development.

However, a council planning officer has now deemed it unnecessary for an assessment to be conducted.

A spokesperson for the Friends of Duchess Wood (FODW) said: “In our first submission FODW requested that a full EIA be carried out due to the fact that the development is above the threshold for one and that it is next to an area having specific ecological designations.

“The YLEM EIA screening checklist has done nothing to either reassure us or to change our view that a full EIA should be conducted. and we are surprised, and disappointed, that YLEM concluded no EIA is required as we understood this was the mandate of the appropriate planning authority.

“There are sufficient inaccuracies in the YLEM screening checklist to call into question its validity and we remain of the view that a full EIA is required, and indeed mandated, by the Scottish planning regulations.”

A council planning officer said: “In respect of noise, it is considered that although noise will be generated by charging /discharging the battery system (as clarified in the planning application submissions) and also potentially by cooling fans when required, the potential impact of these by virtue of the likely scale and the location of the proposals are not of a level of concern to suggest that these matters cannot be considered as part of the planning application process.

“In respect of potential landscape impacts (and impacts upon the character and openness of of the Green Belt), again these are matters which officers consider can be properly addressed as part of the planning application process and do not require an EIA.

“Officers can identify no matters within criterion A to C which suggest that a separate EIA will be required in this instance.”

A spokesperson for YLEM Energy said: “Due to the nature of our proposed development an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Screening Opinion was sought from Argyll and Bute Council. The purpose of the EIA is to identify potentially significant environmental impacts and to identify ways to mitigate and manage these impacts to an acceptable level. We received confirmation from Argyll and Bute Council on May 22 2024 that an EIA was not required in this instance.”

“Our planning application has been submitted with a full suite of reports, prepared by professional consultants, demonstrating the proposed development accords with the Argyll and Bute’s Local Plan as required by planning law.”