The planning meeting on SSE's application for a two year extension for their Hunterston turbine site has been brought forward to Wednesday August 23.
The SSE application was to be heard by the planning committee in September but since they have now appealed, North Ayrshire Council has to come to a formal decision on their application before 1 September, which is the deadline for NAC to submit their views to the Scottish Government.
Chair of the planning committee, Tom Marshall said: "North Ayrshire Council have asked for this deadline to be set later but so far this has not been agreed. So the SSE application for extension of time will be held at the planning committee on 23 August."
A North Ayrshire Council spokesperson said: “As SSE has submitted an appeal to the Scottish Government’s Planning and Environmental Appeals Division (DPEA), the council will provide a statement of case on the appeal.
“This statement has to be informed by the council's planning committee which will meet on 23 August - the earliest possible date the committee could meet to consider the matter. Given that the matter is currently subject to an appeal, it would be inappropriate to comment further.”
The original decision was due in March, but was delayed until June for noise monitoring tests, and was put back again till September to allow for noise monitoring analysis to have concluded. Fairlie Community Council, and all four local councillors, put in objections to the development at the June meeting.
SSE said they were disappointed with June's decision to 'again delay a decision' on a time extension for the Hunterston Test Facility, and said: "As the only functioning onshore test facility for offshore wind turbines in the UK, Hunterston has delivered a number of benefits for the industry and local community and SSE will now urgently review the options for taking the project forward given the time limit on the current consent.”