Green vision a new Leith of life for docks

A new Memorandum of Understanding has been formed between the group to develop an ambitious new masterplan to create a “21st-century gateway port” at Leith.

The partnership means previous plans to build 15,000 new houses and a shopping esplanade have been torn up in favour of “reshaping the vision” to focus on turbine manufacture.

It is not yet known how much public money will be ploughed into the new initiative, but Scottish Enterprise has confirmed it will fund technical and feasibility studies that will form the basis for future plans. A spokeswoman could not confirm how much money this would involve.

First Minister Alex Salmond said: “This agreement signals the dawn of a new era for Leith, which will ensure it plays a central role in supporting economic growth in the Lothians and in the wider Scottish economy.

Forth Ports chief executive Charles Hammond told The Scotsman: “This is a new direction that we are going in. It’s something that we have been pursuing for a while.

“We believe the best commercial direction and the best economic direction for Scotland is to develop Leith for the renewables industry.”

He said interest had been shown by several green energy companies. Wave-power firm Pelamis is already sited at Leith Docks.

He added that considering the current state of the property market building 15,000 new homes was not viable.

An existing plan for a controversial biomass plant remains on the table, Mr Hammond confirmed, as well as an intention to expand the cruise liner terminal to tap into the potential income from tourism.

Leith Councillor Gordon Munro said the announcement had come out of the blue.

“This is a complete reversal of what has been extensively trailed by Forth Ports over the years,” he said.

“This deal behind closed doors was so secret that no mention of this was made at a council committee which met on Tuesday.”

Infrastructure fund Arcus completed a £746 million take-over of Forth Ports in June and announced then it wanted to focus on renewable energy opportunities rather than retail and real estate.

A spokeswoman for Scottish Enterprise said it was not an unusual step to form a partnership of this kind.

Chief executive Lena Wilson said: “The partnership will result in an ambitious plan to ensure Leith’s assets are exploited to help create new jobs and economic growth for Scotland.”

The Port of Leith is Scotland’s largest enclosed deepwater port with 158 hectares of land and up to 100 hectares of water area. The council has an existing £84m plan to trigger development in the docks site, and had proposed becoming the first Scottish authority to use a “tax increment financing” (TIF) scheme to fund infrastructure work that would encourage developers to invest in the area.

Leader Jenny Dawe said in light of the change of direction she would ask for a report on the impact this might have on the finances of the TIF and what the return would be.

Mr Hammond told The Scotsman he hoped the council would continue with its plans to use the TIF process.