Holyrood will decide

Ineos wants to close off Boness Road and build a combined steam and energy plant on its Grangemouth site

It comes as the petrochemical giant takes it’s proposal to close off Bo’ness Road to the Scottish Ministers.

The company lodged a proposal of application with Falkirk council for the power plant on its Grangemouth site with the earliest date an application can be submitted being September 27 this year.

Pete McLaren will attend the next meeting of Bo’ness Community Council to give a presentation on the proposal. It takes place on Wednesday, August 9 at 7pm in the meeting room in the town’s library. Members of the public are welcome to attend the meeting.

It will also be discussed at the meeting of Grangemouth Community Council on August 17.

Ineos made a planning application with Falkirk Council back in January to permanently close off a section of the A904 Bo’ness Road and erect gatehouses.

It has now been revealed that the company has gone straight to Scottish Ministers with an appeal citing the local authority’s non-determination of the application.

However, the council’s planning committee did not determine the application in March as expected after Ineos submitted supplementary information which had to be considered.

The decision was further delayed by the local authority elections and the summer recess.

An online petition at www.change.org to keep the road open has gathered around 2500 supporters.