PLANNING officials are recommending that councillors give permission for a new Clyde Coast village with hundreds of houses on the site of Inverkip Power Station.

ScottishPower want to develop an ‘urban village’ with residential, business and community use and shops on the 43-hectare site between Inverkip and Wemyss Bay.

The village would have four distinct neighbourhoods set around a central area of open space developed around Brueacre Burn. When ScottishPower submitted the application in June 2009, they stated the proposed development would be known as ‘Brueacre Village’.

A report fhas been submitted for consideration at Inverclyde Planning Board’s meeting next Wednesday [Note: The application was deferred and at time of writing -- 25 January 2012 --has still to go before the planning board]

The report states that the neighbourhoods would “vary in nature and density, with contrasting street patterns and a mix of local retail, community and recreational facilities, residential, a series of business spaces and a small pub/restaurant concentrated in the ‘Main Street’ and ‘Harbourside’ neighbourhoods.” ‘The Hill’ and ‘Streets and Lanes’ neighbourhoods would be exclusively residential. There would be a sea walk along the front.  The development area would be half of the total site.

Access would be from the existing A78 Brueacre Interchange which would be improved. A roundabout would be built within the site as part of the village road network. There would be bus stops close to the site entrance to help encourage the use of public transport. One of the planning conditions is that a new roundabout be provided at the northern junction of Inverkip Main Street and the A78 trunk road.

It is expected that it would be 2014/5 before the first houses were completed and that it would take at least 12 years to build the village.

Planners confirm that there have been considerable discussions with the Head of Education over the ability of existing schools to accommodate children from the village. Wemyss Bay Primary, the nearest non-denominational school, was recently refurbished and expanded with the proposed development in mind. Children from Wemyss Bay also attend St Ninian’s Primary in Gourock, the nearest denominational primary. The Head of Education has confirmed that, as long as the house building is phased -- 60 a year for the first five years and 100 a year for the second five years -- then St Ninian’s could accommodate the extra children. The applicant has agreed to this phasing.

Wildlife representatives have concerns about impacts on nesting birds and proposed keeping the power station jetty or part of it as an ecological habitat although felt that the provision of nesting boxes and ledges for birds such as shags and black guillemots would be an acceptable alternative. The report states that the applicant has confirmed that, as a matter of safety, the entire jetty has to be removed. The alternative nest box provision can be imposed as a condition of planning consent.

Stuart Jamieson, Inverclyde’s head of regeneration and planning, states in the report: “If the corporate aim of reversing depopulation is to be achieved through housing-led regeneration, then a wide range of different housing sites in different localities will be vital to Inverclyde’s future prosperity, and this renewal cannot be achieved overnight. Rather, regeneration remains generational in its timescale and large sites such as this provide the means and continuing flexibility to achieve the ‘step-change’ that is needed for the area.”

Inverclyde’s planning policy puts a limit of 400 on the number of houses at the site but capacity of the land has been assessed at 780 houses. However Mr Jamieson states that a “design-led approach” had produced evidence that a village of about 640 houses could be developed on the site in a “desirable manner and with acceptable impact on services.” The application is in principle so exact house numbers would be dealt with when detailed planning permission was sought.

The report states that one requirement of planning policy which it may not be possible to achieve is creation of a vehicle link between the new village and Wemyss Bay. This is because of the nature of the landscape and the Wemyss Plantation Tree Preservation Order.

Mr Jamieson concluded: “In all aspects other than site capacity, I am satisfied that the proposed development accords in principle with Local Plan policy. However, given the infrastructure capacity of the site including consideration of road, traffic and education provision capacity, I am satisfied that the potential to create a high quality, sustainable village on a brownfield site in one of Scotland’s most attractive coastal settings provides justification for supporting this departure from the development plan.”

Construction of Inverkip Power Station started in October 1970. It was designed to meet peak demand and provide flexibility to the electricity supply network but, because of the soaring price of oil in the 1970s, the station was never commercially operated except during 1984/5 when it was required. The plant was kept as a strategic reserve until the late 1990s when the plant was mothballed.

Its chimney is the tallest free-standing structure in Scotland and third tallest in the UK. It is 236m (778ft) high and contains more than 1,400,000 bricks and 20,000 tonnes of concrete.

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