A SPECIALIST planning hub is being established near Annan to boost development and green energy opportunities across Scotland.
Based at Chapelcross, the hub will support planning authorities to improve their resourcing skills and capacity to deliver planning determinations promptly.
It will initially focus on speeding up consent for hydrogen developments, complementing the masterplan outlined last month by Dumfries and Galloway Council, Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) and South of Scotland Enterprise (SOSE) to transform the site into a net-zero focused development with plans for hydrogen production storage, advanced manufacturing and energy and enterprise campuses.
Minister for Public Finance Ivan Mckee visited the 60 hectare site on Monday, and was very impressed by Chapelcross and its potential to put the region, and Scotland, at the forefront of hydrogen technology. He said: “I’ve been really impressed by the co-operative working by South of Scotland Enterprise, the council, the NDA and other partners to ensure that the legacy of this site and building an energy hub here, manufacturing hub, hydrogen generation that keeps these high paid jobs in the area for decades to come and the very well developed plans that they have for that.
“Part of that is that they need support to get the hydrogen applications through.
“And a hydrogen planning hub is going to allow us to move as fast we can to get a development on this site and support jobs and keep Scotland at the forefront of this technology.”
Mr Mckee went on to say that the hub will be set up later this year, whilst Chapelcross continues its decommissioning process, allowing for the transition of existing roles at the site as well as the creation of new ones.
He added: “This’ll be about transitioning from the jobs that are already here on the site and creating new jobs for the future, so it’s all looking to the future and it’s a long term strategy to keep people in jobs here for decades to come.”
The announcement of the masterplan and now the hub have already generated a lot of interest from the energy sector, with SOSE confirming they are in conversation with multiple companies who are interested in setting up shop at the site.
Dumfries and Galloway Council leader, Cllr Gail Macgregor believes that the transformation of Chapelcross will have an ‘incredible impact’ locally.
She said: “I think it will have an incredible impact, it’s going to bring highly skilled jobs to the region, which we desperately need; we know Dumfries and Galloway is a low wage region anyway, and it will also encourage our colleges and university to offer really high quality courses for people who want to come into the energy sector and the skills, engineers and the such that’s going to be required for that, so I think the opportunities are absolutely endless for Dumfries and Galloway and I’m delighted that the minister is here.”
