Fish rearing site at Hunterston is given the go ahead

An enterprising scheme which will see young fish reared in tanks before later being released to marine sites across Scotland has been passed by councillors, despite some major environmental concerns being raised.

And the venture, which came before Wednesday’s North Ayrshire Planning committee, will create more than 200 jobs on the site of the Hunterston Construction Yard.

The Recirculating Agricultural Technology is a land-based, environmentally friendly aquaculture system, allowing fish to be reared for longer in freshwater tanks before being moved to marine sites elsewhere in Scotland.

Retaining this greater control of the freshwater rearing environment means larger juvenile salmon (smolt) are produced, shortening the marine production cycle and in turn reducing the biological risk of rearing at sea.

The Recirculated Aquaculture System (RAS) complex is essentially a complex for the breeding of salmon smolts. 

The proposed site is in the north-east corner of the Hunterston Construction Yard. 

The total application site is approx. 6.75 hectares, including an existing access road from the south and a route between the main part of the site and a jetty to the north-west. 

The actual complex itself would be within a roughly rectangular area, some 3.3ha, in the north-west corner. 

A section of the site to the south is marked a potential future development area but no specific plans are proposed as part of this application. 

A separate application has been submitted to grade that land for future use in association with the rest of the Construction Yard. 

The RAS complex would be enclosed by a steel weldmesh security fence between two and three metres high.

Within the complex would be buildings for the various stages of fish development. These would be some 12,090sqm in footprint in total.

The PAC report outlines the public consultation undertaken prior to submission of the application. Public exhibitions were held in Fairlie, West Kilbride and Millport. A total of 85 people attended these three events.

There was also an online exhibition with 24 views.

The public were generally positive about the proposal particularly in terms of innovation and employment. Concerns were raised in terms of noise and other environmental impacts, and it was hoped the relevant information would be submitted as part of the planning application process.

The Planning Statement sets out the proposal in the planning context. 

The Economic Report sets out the projected economic impact of the development over a 30-year life period.

It considers the construction process could generate 264 full-time equivalent jobs whilst the operation of the development could generate 15 full-time equivalent direct jobs and 35 Full-Time Equivalent jobs in the supply chain in North Ayrshire.

Planning vice-chair Cameron Inglis asked Head of Planning Allan Finlayson if there was potential for the fish to get into waters and interfere with others.

He said it was a controlled environment and it was not in the applicant’s interest for fish to disappear into the sea and that was very unlikely to happen.

SNP Cllr Scott Davidson was worried that hundreds of thousands of fish could escape into the sea and North Coats Independent Councillor Ian Murdoch was also worried about discharge.

But the official said it was unlikely to happen at all.

Cllr Inglis proposed accepting the application.

Cllr Davidson wanted more information on the quantities of fish and how the cleaning up of water would be completed and Cllr Murdoch more wanted reassurance on the project.

It was deemed there was no competent amendment.

And the motion from Cllr Inglis to approve the application subject to conditions as on the basis of information given the site gave “exciting opportunities” for the county was passed by the committee.

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