Power plant battle rages on after cash vow

ENVIRONMENT charities have pledged tens of thousands of pounds to prevent the collapse of a legal challenge to a controversial new power station.

Jobless Marco McGinty is taking the Scottish Government to court over plans for a coal-fired plant in Hunterston, Ayrshire.

However, he hit a major stumbling block when he realised he could not afford the hefty legal costs. If he lost, he would have to pay as much as 80,000 to cover both his lawyer's fees and the Scottish Government's costs.

Now The Scotsman can reveal that a group of environment groups, including RSPB Scotland and WWF Scotland, have pledged most of the money to make sure the case goes ahead.

They believe the legal challenge could be one of the best ways to halt the power station, which they argue would pump damaging greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere.

Aedn Smith, head of planning and development at RSPB Scotland, said: "It is critically important that this judicial review is seen through if we are to stop this damaging development from happening at Hunterston."

Mr McGinty has lodged the legal challenge on the basis that the power station was included in the National Planning Framework (NPF) – the Scottish Government's blueprint for future development – after a consultation process had finished.

He says this means local people did not have a chance to comment on the inclusion of the power station. The Scottish Government disputes this claim.

Mr Smith said the plant's inclusion in the NPF was "fundamentally undemocratic". Once included, the overall need for a development could no longer be contested, he said.

Faced with potentially high legal costs, RSPB Scotland have agreed to pay up to 40,000, WWF Scotland up to 14,000, Friends of the Earth Scotland 5,000 and two trust funds 15,000 between them.

This still leaves a shortfall if Mr McGinty loses the case, and the groups are appealing for donations.

Mr McGinty, 38, an avid birdwatcher, lives in Saltcoats, just minutes from the site of the proposed power station.

He believes the plans to build it on 30 hectares of inter-tidal mudflats on the Clyde, where he goes with his binoculars on a daily basis, will destroy a crucial habitat for wading birds.

Ayrshire Power lodged a planning application for the scheme last week. Yesterday the firm announced the consultation was to be extended by a month, until 20 August, because the proposal was so complicated.

If granted approval, the 1,600-megawatt plant would be the first new fossil-fuel power station in Scotland for more than three decades. It would power up to three million homes and create 160 permanent jobs.