A public hearing will be held, on a date yet to be determined, when councillors from Bute and Cowal will finally reach a decision on the first of two planning applications for wind farms on the hills opposite Rothesay Bay.
The councillors on the
Bute and Cowal area committee took all of three minutes this week to decide to hold a public hearing on the Corlarach application, by Cowal Wind Energy Ltd., for 14 turbines, each 125 metres high, along with wind monitor masts, sub-stations, temporary compounds and offices and underground cabling.
And they were warned that, such was the apparent level of interest in the application, only the main hall at the Queen's Hall in Dunoon would be big enough to hold that meeting.
The decision to hold a hearing was not, in itself, a great surprise, for the application attracted a mammoth 942 letters from members of the public - the vast majority, contrary to our expectations, writing in favour of the turbines.
And the committee, which met at the Queen's Hall on Tuesday, was warned it would have to take steps to ensure that as many of those 942 people as possible were allowed to give their views.
However, despite that avalanche of letters, not a single soul - apart from our reporter - turned up at Tuesday's meeting waiting with bated breath to hear the councillors' Corlarach decision.
In fact, the figure of 942 responses was more than a little misleading: while the background papers written by Argyll and Bute Council planning officials - who recommended that the committee turn down the application as well as holding a hearing - mentioned 745 letters of support, many of these were identical standard letters, raising broadly similar issues.
In addition, the lion's share of those expressions of support arrived with council officers in Dunoon in a small number of batches, with a particularly large number delivered to planners' desks on September 4.
A majority of the letters in support came from non-local addresses - i.e. outside the Bute and Cowal area - with the further-flung respondents coming from as far afield as Mississauga, Ontario, Solignac in the Limoges region of France and a box number in Dubai.
Moreover, approximately half of the 197 letters of objection were also in the form of standard letters, all raising similar points.
The vast majority of objections came from addresses in Bute, Cowal or elsewhere in Argyll.
Cllr Dick Walsh, who, as well as representing the Dunoon ward in which the application site is located, is also the leader of Argyll and Bute Council, advised: "It is essential that members allocate a full day for an unaccompanied site and viewing point inspection, and then hold the hearing the following day.
"The amount of representations would require the Queen's Hall main hall to be used for the hearing."
We'll publish details of the date, time and venue for the Corlarach public hearing as soon as it is confirmed.
Meanwhile, a date has been chosen for councillors to reach a final decision on the application to erect a marine fish farm north of Inchmarnock, off Bute's west coast.
The Bute and Cowal area committee will consider the application, by Offshore Farm Developments Ltd., in a public hearing at the Pavilion in Rothesay on Wednesday, January 9 at 10am.
The committee agreed last month to defer its decision, despite planning officials' recommendation that the plan should be refused.
To read the background reports into the Corlarach application on the internet, go to http://tinyurl.com/2evscu and click on agenda item 9g, where the full list of names and addresses of all 942 correspondents has also been put online.
You can also tell us your views on the Corlarach wind farm proposal – just register or sign in at the foot of this page to post your comments directly to us.
