The Court of Session in Edinburgh has today issued a ruling that Scottish Ministers did not act illegally in deciding that there was a national need for a new coal plant at Hunterston.

Scottish Minsters included the Hunterston proposals in the second National Planning Framework for Scotland, as they considered at the time that there was a national need for new baseload electricity generation. They have since indicated that expansion of renewable energy means this is no longer the case. However, national development status for a development means that the need for it can not be considered at the application stage. 

Local resident, Mr Marco McGinty, who regularly visits the site to go bird watching, challenged Scottish Minsters’ decision in the Court of Session in Edinburgh. Mr McGinty has been supported by a broad coalition of organisations and individuals, including the Scottish Wildlife Trust.

We are very disappointed in this decision. It is hard to understand how the Scottish Courts could conclude that an individual who lives close to and makes regular use of a site that would be destroyed by a development has no right to challenge the decision that there is a need for the project.

It really does serve to show how profoundly undemocratic the Scottish planning and legal systems can be and how incredibly difficult it is for the ordinary individual or other parties to access the courts. Scotland is already behind the rest of the UK and much of Europe in opening up access to the courts.  This decision seems to go against the flow of progress happening elsewhere in the UK and Europe. We will be scrutinising the detail of the judgement very closely over the coming days before deciding whether to support any appeal of this decision.

However, this decision does not mean by any means that Peel Energy’s plan for Hunterston will now go ahead. It could, and should, still be refused by Scottish Ministers. The fact that there have been over 16,000 objections and the Scottish Parliament has voted against the proposals shows just how unwanted it is. Regardless of this judgement, Peel Energy should take the message that their damaging development is neither needed nor wanted, and they should do the right thing and withdraw their application. 

We will also continue to push for changes to the process by which national developments are identified so that such ill thought out, environmentally damaging proposals can not be given national development status again and individuals and communities are not denied meaningful opportunities to influence decisions about other nationally important infrastructure projects in future.

In response to the judgment the petitioner, Marco McGinty said:

“I am deeply disappointed in this ruling, which has failed to overturn the manifestly unfair planning and legal processes that led to Hunterston being declared a national development.

“This is a sad reflection on Scotland and the Scottish planning and legal systems. It would appear that the value of the natural environment, as well as the principles of fairness, openness and democracy are set to one side when wealthy developers like Peel are involved.

“In the coming days I will be discussing the decision with my legal advisors and supporters before deciding whether to lodge an appeal.

“However, the Scottish Parliament has already voted against the plans and I urge Scottish Ministers to reject this environmentally damaging, unwanted and unneeded proposal.”

Maggie Keegan, the Scottish Wildlife Trust's National Planning Co-ordinator said:

“This is a bitterly disappointing decision that leaves the future of wildlife on the Ayrshire coast in limbo.

“The Scottish Wildlife Trust will continue its fight to save the nationally important wildlife site from being trashed by the Hunterston development. If the coal-fired power station is built it will see the destruction of an important feeding area for wading birds such as greenshank and oystercatcher who will have nowhere else to go in Ayrshire if the mudflats are built on. But the damage doesn’t stop there, nationally important eelgrass beds and  rare species to Scotland such as seaside centaury and a type of cuckoo bee will also disappear.”