Battery Project - Chairman's Statement

[Stephen Malkmus]

1 hour ago, McMurdo said:

How many of those up in arms and slamming the decision on social media actually live in what would be an evacuation zone where potential houses would lose value/desirability? 

Absolute scaremongering nonsense. Would you be saying the same if they lived near a petrol station?

[ICT Supporters Trust]

Please see the statement issued this afternoon by the ICT Supporters Trust following today's decision by The Highland Council:

https://www.ictsupporterstrust.org/post/the-highland-councils-rejection-of-the-battery-park-planning-application

 

[highlandexile]

What a sad day this is for ICT supporters.

Reading all the responses here and on other social media platforms, it feels like this has really divided our support.  Everyone has the right to their own opinions but its really sad to see that anyone who thinks the council has come to the correct decision is somehow not a real supporter of the club.

Just remember it was not the council who got the club into this financial situation resulting in an all or nothing planning application.

At a time when supporters should be coming together to find a way to salvage the club, we seem to be fighting with each other.

[Yngwie]

2 hours ago, old caley girl said:

 The standard of debate was awful. 

Not particularly surprising.

There was a debacle in Edinburgh recently where their Council decided to toss a coin to determine whether the applicant for a housing development should pay £1m or £3m to the Council.

[wilsywilsy]

10 minutes ago, Stephen Malkmus said:

Absolute scaremongering nonsense. Would you be saying the same if they lived near a petrol station?

I'm not sure I would go that far and say it's scaremongering. There were some reasonable concerns highlighted today about fire safety and the environment that was all under lined by the lack of legislation that could offer any comfort. At least petrol stations have tight regulations and controls from HSE and other regulatory bodies that planners and councils can lean in to.

[Charles Bannerman]

5 minutes ago, wilsywilsy said:

I'm not sure I would go that far and say it's scaremongering. There were some reasonable concerns highlighted today about fire safety and the environment that was all under lined by the lack of legislation that could offer any comfort. At least petrol stations have tight regulations and controls from HSE and other regulatory bodies that planners and councils can lean in to.

I think that the club’s prospects of acceptance were on a dicky wicket once safety issues came into the equation. It’s easy to argue between the loss of 2% of a large green area by taking the Inner Moray Firth plan as the letter of the law on the one hand, and on the other a green initiative that will yield £125K per annum for the Council and hugely help one of Inverness’s highest profile organisations. However Elfin Safety seems to trump everything.

Also, it’s easy for people in our position to highlight the benefit to the club but the ordinary person on the street or councillor in the chamber often has no partisan interest and could validly argue (Devil’s Advocate kite alert!) that the self-inflicted financial failings of a football club, notwithstanding its good PR etc for Inverness, cannot be taken into consideration in the course of deciding a planning application.

[RednBlackComeback]

New site for the Battery Storage ? https://www.inverness-courier.co.uk/news/former-inverness-college-site-sold-to-local-businessman-345039/

 

[Yngwie]

Why would the council be pursuing their own BESS projects whilst at the same time citing safety concerns about them as a reason to refuse our one? Surely there isn’t one rule for them….

[Stephen Malkmus]

29 minutes ago, wilsywilsy said:

I'm not sure I would go that far and say it's scaremongering. There were some reasonable concerns highlighted today about fire safety and the environment that was all under lined by the lack of legislation that could offer any comfort. At least petrol stations have tight regulations and controls from HSE and other regulatory bodies that planners and councils can lean in to.

HSE, SEPA etc. would all regulate the site through their own regimes. The BESS would have to comply with the standards below. The officer presenting the application stated that he could attach a condition requiring a fire response plan to be submitted. The idea that BESS aren't subject to regulation and controls is fiction.

Edited March 14 by Stephen Malkmus

[wilsywilsy]

8 minutes ago, Yngwie said:

Why would the council be pursuing their own BESS projects whilst at the same time citing safety concerns about them as a reason to refuse our one? Surely there isn’t one rule for them….

Fair point. I could be wrong but I understood that it was just an idea/concept at this stage. From what I recall the prospective location was the old Torvean Quarry, which is in the development plan as open for industrial use. By the time the council ever get round to moving something forward, ScotGov might have some BESS legislation/guidelines in place. Dunno.

[wilsywilsy]

1 hour ago, Stephen Malkmus said:

HSE, SEPA etc. would all regulate the site through their own regimes. The BESS would have to comply with the standards below. The officer presenting the application stated that he could attach a condition requiring a fire response plan to be submitted. The idea that BESS aren't subject to regulation and controls is fiction.

Correct me if I am wrong, but I don't think anyone has suggested the components and installation would not meet BS guidelines. The concerns we have heard over the last few days were about operational failures and if the site layout and design was prepared to mitigate those possibilities...... it seems not.

 

Edited March 14 by wilsywilsy

[bdu98196]

3 hours ago, Yngwie said:

Dog walking and sledging are more important than net zero, it’s official!

Should fence it off and charge folks entry to zip their sledges round mounds of dug *****

[+DoofersDad]

2 hours ago, RednBlackComeback said:

New site for the Battery Storage ? https://www.inverness-courier.co.uk/news/former-inverness-college-site-sold-to-local-businessman-345039/

 

Very interesting.  Surely more than a coincidence?

[+Fraz]

No chance this will get passed I assume #greenspace 

https://www.inverness-courier.co.uk/news/10-bungalows-planned-on-greenfield-site-near-caledonian-cana-345011/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=facebook

[IBM]

30 minutes ago, DoofersDad said:

Very interesting.  Surely more than a coincidence?

It definitely won’t be a battery storage plant there. 

[Charles Bannerman]

10 minutes ago, Fraz said:

No chance this will get passed I assume #greenspace 

https://www.inverness-courier.co.uk/news/10-bungalows-planned-on-greenfield-site-near-caledonian-cana-345011/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=facebook

As was the massive area at Holm Mills, now circumscribed by the West Link…. and where hundreds of houses are now being built. It would have been an ideal site for a public park.

[IBM]

12 minutes ago, Fraz said:

No chance this will get passed I assume #greenspace 

https://www.inverness-courier.co.uk/news/10-bungalows-planned-on-greenfield-site-near-caledonian-cana-345011/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=facebook

I think it will. 

[Jack Waddington]

41 minutes ago, Fraz said:

No chance this will get passed I assume #greenspace 

https://www.inverness-courier.co.uk/news/10-bungalows-planned-on-greenfield-site-near-caledonian-cana-345011/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=facebook

THATS WHERE I GO SLEDGING DAMNIT!

[Charles Bannerman]

Another thought. What if the Scottish Government overrides today’s decision and gives the scheme the go ahead…. but so much fear and alarm has by now been spread by local residents that house prices in the surrounding area take a nosedive?

[BobbyDazzler]

The first financial cut back the club needs to make is Scot Gardiner. He is surplus to requirements and brought nothing but trouble to the club. 

[old caley girl]

1 minute ago, BobbyDazzler said:

The first financial cut back the club needs to make is Scot Gardiner. He is surplus to requirements and brought nothing but trouble to the club. 

Can't see how we can afford him now anyway 

[Yngwie]

9 hours ago, old caley girl said:

Will a list of who voted each way be published? 

Anyone know if this is publicly available yet?

[Jack Waddington]

2 hours ago, Charles Bannerman said:

Another thought. What if the Scottish Government overrides today’s decision and gives the scheme the go ahead…. but so much fear and alarm has by now been spread by local residents that house prices in the surrounding area take a nosedive?

Think there's more fear and alarm at the clownncils incompetence. We all saw the outburst when Cllr MacPherson called the big dogs out on their previous failures elsewhere, and we all saw that not many of them did their job with the "kids sledge there" argument.

Just one of many, MANY, cockups that the Highland Clowncil have caused, and I can't imagine many will be best pleased with all the well documented drama that unravelled on the live stream.

Money burnt on a daft river circle, the Academy Street fiasco, the Longman and Inshes Roundabouts, the potholes, Invergordon Academy, the Ironworks, the list keeps piling and thats just the start of it.

Like the club, they need a shakedown from top to bottom, and weed out the muppets.

[+DoofersDad]

I find it disappointing that the Club have not put out a statement regarding the planning decision.  The decision was made on Thursday morning and they have had plenty of time to put out a holding response.  Obviously they need to go away and have a serious assessment of where we are financially and what the prospects of an appeal might be and that takes a bit of time.  But a simple statement of  disappointment, thanking fans for their support in this matter and a promise of a more detailed statement to follow could have been sent out within the hour.  Clearly fans are worried about the future of the club and deserve a little bit of consideration.

Gardiner has found the time though to sound off to the "Courier" with further inflammatory language.  He refers to "clearly unjust nonsense" and to "insidious behind-the-scenes goings-on from certain councillors".  He may have a point, but someone in his position needs to use more measured language.  

Hopefully the club will now take up the Supporters Trust offer of engagement.  The club needs all the friends it can get at this point and it needs its supporters like never before.

[Yngwie]

Surprised we have had no statement but on the other hand I suspect any statement issued on the day of the decision would have been written with fury. They have probably been in discussions about an appeal. Hopefully we get a measured response very soon.