Battery Project - Chairman's Statement

[Jaggernaut]

Here's an idea, how about coming up with a new project title? If it was now called the TESCO Battery Energy Storage Facility, it would sail through all the planning committee stages would it not?

[Robert]

Text of e-mail received from the Chairman. The link in red takes you to the text of an e-mail he has sent to Councillors:

 

Dear Caley Thistle supporter, 

As you may have read or heard ICTFC has lodged a planning application for a BESS Development (Battery Electrical Storage system) at the back of Fairways Business Park in Inverness.

The development has been helped massively by our main sponsor ILI with two huge goals in mind

Firstly to take a huge step forward in helping Scotland, and the Highlands in particular, to getting to NET Zero CO2 emissions

Secondly this development can be hugely beneficial to our club with the funds allowing us a firm, stable financial foundation for years to come.

It is imperative that Scotland gets to a net zero CO2 footing. Highland Council along with the Scottish Gov declared a climate Emergency in 2019 ! 

It is also imperative that ICTFC derive funding from outwith football as we simply don’t make enough in the Championship to keep a full time squad and everything that goes with it. We don’t have a rich owner, there is only all of us together, so we need help. This development can most certainly help, but last week the planning department of Highland Council recommended that our application should be refused when it comes before the Council Planning Committee this Wednesday. This was devastating news.

WE need to persuade, by lobbying the local councillors, that this recommendation should be overturned and the application should be approved at the meeting which is taking place this Wednesday and to that end I am asking all of you, if you agree with what I have said, to contact your local councillor with your support for the application and the club and also with the knowledge that it contributes massively to get to the Net Zero goal.

I have attached a copy of an email I've sent out to all Highland Councillors which will give you a fuller picture.

I hope this helps explain matters more fully, but in summary our BESS development on 1.7 hectares of Fairways……….

 

WILL SAVE , ANNUALLY, 20,000 TONNES OF CO2.

THE EQUIVALENT OF PLANTING 1,000,000 TREES (YOU CANT FIT 1,000,000 TREES ONTO 1.7 HECTARES) !

TAKES POWER FROM TURBINES WHEN THERE IS EXCESS IN THE SYSTEM ALLOWING THEM TO CARRY ON TURNING WHEN BEFORE THEY WERE TURNED OFF

WHEN THE TURBINES STOP THE BATTERIES RELEASE POWER ENOUGH TO POWER EVERY HOUSE IN THE HIGHLANDS FOR TWO HOURS !

NEGATES THE NEED TO TURN ON GAS POWERED GENERATORS . REDUCES FOSSIL FUEL RELIANCE AND USAGE

CAN AND WILL SECURE THE FUTURE OF ICTFC AND ICTFC COMMUNITY TRUST AND ALLOW US TO FLOURISH AND PROSPER  

Admittedly , the site will use 1.7 hectares of green space but this is only 2% of the 85 hectares which are left untouched and as I say, is the equivalent of 1m trees being planted by ICTFC. 

The Highlands needs this. Scotland needs this and everyone associated with ICTFC needs this.

If you can do anything to help us then please do. Now is the time when we need you the most.

 

Kind regards,

Ross

J.Ross Morrison

Chairman

ICTFC

Edited November 19, 2023 by Robert

[bdu98196]

Reads like a statement that would have benefited being written by solicitors and technical experts in the field.

Positive though that our board are at least willing to try new ideas.

[RiG]

I feel like this call to arms has come far too late in the day as the period to submit representations on this application has long since passed.

[Yngwie]

9 minutes ago, RiG said:

I feel like this call to arms has come far too late in the day as the period to submit representations on this application has long since passed.

Those representations to the planning department were the opportunity for the site’s neighbours, Inverness’s retired folk and other interfering busybodies to object to the plans. They don’t carry much weight, and any letters of support would have carried no weight at all.

What the club want now, which is their only slim hope, is to influence the councillors who will vote on whether to accept or reject the planning department’s recommendation to reject outright.

 

[L_G]

On 11/18/2023 at 11:36 PM, Yngwie said:

Can’t get the necessary connection to the grid there.

ILI will arrange the access to the grid which is definitely available or we wouldn't be this far down the road. 

The arguement can only be based on net zero and not any financial benefit to ICT or indeed any business. The planning sits separately. 

[Yngwie]

5 minutes ago, L_G said:

ILI will arrange the access to the grid which is definitely available or we wouldn't be this far down the road. 

I was answering someone who asked why we don’t put the facility next to the stadium - the grid access is not available there (but is at Fairways, as we know).

[Row S]

1 hour ago, Yngwie said:

What the club want now, which is their only slim hope, is to influence the councillors who will vote on whether to accept or reject the planning department’s recommendation to reject outright.

 

Yes, it's called lobbying and still happens for some planning applications despite being frowned upon by officials and against Standards and Ethics in local government guidelines.

Only 5 busy bodies and one neighbouring community council objected. Very low public interest compared with proposals for 800 houses and a new primary school on the former golf course.

I feel that Council Planning officials are applying double standards with National Planning Framework 4 when it comes to ICT's interests. They are happy to see our stadium and its car parks zoned for business and industry in the new Local Development Plan and be part of the Green Freeport area, contrary to other policies of NPF4. Yet they choose to use that document to try and reject a renewable energy development on a very small proportion of a disused golf course, which isn't even "public" open space.

 

[ictchris]

I spoke to someone at the game on Saturday who knows about council planning applications in general, no special knowledge of this one specifically, and their opinion was that this will 100% be rejected.  It fails it on noise grounds alone due to being too close to houses.

[dougiedanger]

You have to commend these hard-nosed business people, having spent whole careers accumulating wealth by various means, and now foregoing all that to SAVE THE PLANET.

Hats off to these climate warriors.

[Scotty]

With the club coming out strong last week, and the weekend missive from the chairman urging all fans to contact their local councilors, I can't help feeling that all our eggs are in this one basket. That scares me a lot. 

 

[CaleyCanary]

21 hours ago, Robert said:

It is also imperative that ICTFC derive funding from outwith football as we simply don’t make enough in the Championship to keep a full time squad and everything that goes with it.

My feelings too Scotty - this particular sentence in the Chairman's statement says it all. Sounds like we're heading for part-time if this project fails.

[+Gringo]

Very worrying times indeed. Lets hope for a miracle from those Highland Councillors. Somehow I can't see it sadly despite all the lobbying. 

[Robert]

4 hours ago, ictchris said:

I spoke to someone at the game on Saturday who knows about council planning applications in general, no special knowledge of this one specifically, and their opinion was that this will 100% be rejected.  It fails it on noise grounds alone due to being too close to houses.

The club’s argument is that the noise can be mitigated. This is an extract from the e-mail they sent to Councillors which was attached to the e-mail to season ticket holders:

Paragraph 8.38 confirms that our revised noise assessment demonstrated that mitigation measures would reduce noise impacts “to within acceptable levels” and additional mitigation was suggested that could reduce these levels further. While Environmental Health has some questions about the report, any noise impacts can be controlled, through conditions on operating procedures, restrictions, and acoustic barriers. The project can be held to strict noise levels via these conditions ensuring that it does not create a noise nuisance for nearby office buildings in the Business Park, or the wider area. You can vote on Wednesday to approve this application subject to these conditions on noise and the Council will retain control through these conditions.

[CaleyCanary]

There is always hope when it gets to the councillor’s vote stage. Locally, we recently had granted planning permission for a new care home that had a lot of opposition overturned by the councillors after some determined lobbying. Hopefully there’s enough fight in the community to put in the effort for this.

I have no business acumen and may be a bit naive about this sort of stuff and no doubt there are some personalities who stand to gain personally from the project’s success, but it seems to be a legitimate proposal that could do well for the community as well as helping out the club financially. It seems worth the effort to fight for.

[STFU]

It's too easy to scream "big bad council".

I doubt there are many of us here would welcome a noisy, potentially dangerous, and ugly development, only 100 metres from our front door (only 30 metres from some offices).  And it's not going to do much for their property value.

Battery Storage is needed, but they can't just be plonked anywhere because the local football team will gain financially from it.

There's an interesting article here - https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-leeds-66584335

 

[Satan]

24 minutes ago, STFU said:

It's too easy to scream "big bad council".

I doubt there are many of us here would welcome a noisy, potentially dangerous, and ugly development, only 100 metres from our front door (only 30 metres from some offices).  And it's not going to do much for their property value.

 

 

Some people love living near the local pub.

[STFU]

If only we could drink battery acid

[rocky1]

I don’t remember seeing any of the owners/ occupiers of Fairways Business Park objecting . If there are noise issues it didn’t affect the planning for the Inverness Kart Raceway which is hardly a quiet operation!

[+Fraz]

21 minutes ago, STFU said:

If only we could drink battery acid

Some people do like Tennents

[Yngwie]

2 hours ago, STFU said:

I doubt there are many of us here would welcome a noisy, potentially dangerous, and ugly development, only 100 metres from our front door (only 30 metres from some offices).  And it's not going to do much for their property value.

One of these battery farms has got planning permission 160 metres from my house, I’ll be able to see it from my bedroom window. And looking it up online just now, I’ve just discovered that another one has recently been approved about 300m beyond the first one and that one is even closer to houses than the first. Both sailed through planning. 
 

I noticed that one of them is an ILI project and used the same agents and project manager as the ICTFC one - so they can’t be that bad STFU, despite your claim/hope that this is all the club’s fault for using cheap advisors!

[RiG]

1 hour ago, rocky1 said:

I don’t remember seeing any of the owners/ occupiers of Fairways Business Park objecting . If there are noise issues it didn’t affect the planning for the Inverness Kart Raceway which is hardly a quiet operation!

Fairly certain (one of) the owner(s) of Fairways is involved in this project so it would indeed be slightly odd if (s)he objected.

Edited November 20, 2023 by RiG

[rocky1]

All the office pavilions on the Business Park are individually owned.Fairways outwith the business park is owned by Cameron/Sutherland. 

[STFU]

2 hours ago, rocky1 said:

I don’t remember seeing any of the owners/ occupiers of Fairways Business Park objecting . If there are noise issues it didn’t affect the planning for the Inverness Kart Raceway which is hardly a quiet operation!

23_00497_FUL-Warehouse_13_Limited-2973526.pdf

 

[rocky1]

Noted

didn’t realise Mackay properties had sold their interest