Inverness Caley Thistle to reveal all on club's battery farm plans
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Inverness Caley Thistle will hold an open meeting this week to reveal all on the club's battery farm planning application.
It comes after Highland councillors voted to approve the move on land next to Fairways business park last month, before some members chose to use a bureaucratic intervention days later to force the decision to go back to another meeting of the local authority – likely to be on March 14.
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Approval had followed a site visit after the matter was previously deferred. Councillors voted 3-2 to give it the go-ahead, despite planning officials recommending refusal due to the loss of green space. The opposing votes came from the committee's chairman Thomas MacLennan (Fort William and Ardnamurchan) and vice chairman Paul Oldham (Nairn and Cawdor).
Caley Thistle count the battery energy storage scheme plans as being critical to the future of the Championship football club.
The project and land are owned completely by Caley Thistle which is the sole shareholder in ICT Battery Storage Ltd. But the application was made in the name of Intelligent Land Investments (ILI), a close associate of the club as their main shirt sponsor.
The club wants to build a system capable of storing up to 50MW of electricity on a 1.7 hectare site. It will release electricity into the grid at times of shortages, having been charged up when there is less demand.
When sold on, it would net the club a tidy payday to secure its future.
Club chairman Ross Morrison and the board of directors are inviting Caley Thistle fans, shareholders and sponsors to the open meeting at the Caledonian Stadium. It starts at 7pm on Wednesday in the Highlander Lounge.
“Having spoken on numerous occasions in the past regarding the critical importance of this project to our entire future, including most recently in person at the last ICTST [ICT Supporters Trust] open meeting, and following the bewildering behaviour of certain Highland councillors in seeking to overturn a democratically lawful decision to award the club with planning permission for the ICT battery farm, I feel we must enlighten our fans regarding just what has been going on in relation to this most crucial matter and I will answer all and any questions relating to the battery farm after we give our presentation and I hope as many folk as possible can attend”.
The meeting will be led by Mr Morrison with board members and CEO Scot Gardiner also there.
