Mound is sound: Council give Grangemouth firm thumbs up to keep big bump
A mound of “material” which had been accumulating at a Grangemouth energy plant site now has the local authority’s blessing to remain in place.
Earls Gate Energy Centre Ltd lodged an application with Falkirk Council on March 14, looking for permission to keep the “landscape bund” it had created at Calachem Ltd, Earls Road, Grangemouth.
Planning officers acting under delegated powers granted permission on Tuesday, September 9.
According to the online planning documents the retrospective planning application is for a landscape screening mound to the south of the consented Earls Gate Energy Centre (EGEC) development.
The documents stated: “The site benefits from an existing consent for a very similar landscape mound and the as-built mound profile is similar to that of the consented mound in terms of height, length and width.
"The as-built mound has been formed utilising approximately 8400m3 of inert material, comprising material from the construction works for the EGEC, and topsoil material imports to form a capping layer for the landscape planting.
“The mound offers a number of benefits – it provides visual screening to ground level activities of the EGEC site, contributes further to noise mitigation and negated the need to export significant volumes of excavation material from the EGEC site.
“It provides a significant area of woodland planting through the landscape scheme, which adds additional screening benefits for the EGEC site, as well as providing biodiversity value to the site.
“There are no negative effects associated with the as-built mound. The landscape planting has been implemented and will establish quickly to deliver additional
screening to the EGEC site.”