A £3 million climbing wall is refused planning permission for the third time on health and safety grounds for being too close to a fuel depot but the team behind The Ledge say they are 'absolutely not giving up' as they look for another venue
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THE charity aiming to bring a world-class climbing centre to Inverness has vowed to push on despite its plans being rejected yet again.
Councillors reluctantly agreed with the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) that a bid to site the centre in a converted warehouse in Lotland Street next to a fuel storage and distribution site posed too high a risk.
After the plans were previously rejected on the same grounds The Ledge charity proposed constructing a military standard blast wall to provide greater protection in the event of any explosion at the neighbouring site.
However, members of Highland Council’s south planning applications committee decided this week that even that was not enough to allay their fears.
While the risks of any explosion were small, they said, the impact if there was one could be devastating.
Members who questioned why the Inverness site was different from others around the country already located near similar facilities were told by HSE officer Stuart Reston: “The reason this site is different from others is that it is filled regularly from ship to shore and has a fill rate of more than 100 square metres per hour into tanks that are higher than five metres.
“The transfer of gasoline and particularly gasoline-petrol under pressure cascades down and is very volatile. It forms a vapour and that vapour can then drift off site to find an ignition source and that can then lead to explosion.”
Backers say the £3 million centre would create 46 jobs, with the provision of a gym, fitness studio, retail outlet and café as well as climbing facilities generating £1 million a year for the local economy.
And The Ledge chief executive Duncan McCallum insisted the latest rejection was not the end of the road, with two other sites identified as alternatives.
“The issue is that unlike Sheffield or Glasgow, which have lots of heritage, high, old-fashioned industrial buildings that are pretty much redundant, Inverness has never had a hardcore industrial past, so there is a real lack of suitable buildings,” he said.
“But there is not a lack of will and there is not a lack of support, so we’re already looking at a couple of other sites and we’re already talking to an agent about another building which may or may not be able to be secured by us.
“We’re absolutely not giving up and our job is to bring our grant funders and the statutory bodies who are supporting us – Sportscotland, Highland Council and Highlands and Islands Enterprise – with us.
“I would say that we’ve got two very, very strong, positive leads and by the end of the summer, if those come up with a positive plan, then we really have to rethink.”
Councillors rejecting the latest bid on Tuesday made clear they still firmly back the idea of the centre.
Cllr Jimmy Gray said: “I think the proposal itself is really something we should wish to support and we should really wish to find a site for them, but not on this site. I think the risks are far too high.
“Risk is quite a difficult one to get a grip on because the chances of it happening are hopefully not too high, but the implications if it did happen would be really severe.”
Cllr Ben Thompson said he had “huge sympathy” for The Ledge team while Carolyn Caddick said: “I was very supportive, and am very supportive, of this project just from the point of view of jobs, of promoting climbing in the Highlands.
“I think it is a really important project and we really need to find somewhere for this to go.
“But after listening to Stuart Reston and the officers I am reluctantly convinced to support the recommendation to refuse in this case.”
