When Ecotricity withdrew their application for a monitoring mast there was a sigh of relief. This was soon followed by the news of a second application for an even higher monitoring mast! That application has now been made and following some early confusion around payment it’s available on the Perth & Kinross council planning website for comments.

The initial application was met with 256 comments, an amazing response that would have led to the proposal having to be referred to the Development Management Committee (DMC). The exact reasons for the withdrawal of the application and subsequent resubsmission haven’t been clearly explained leading to a lot of questions and the inevitable conspiracy theories. If the submission, withdrawal and resubmission were part of the developers strategy then it would fit in well with the warnings given by planning experts when the proposal was first made public.

The proposal now being considered will be considered in isolation and the previous outpouring of local objections will have been removed. Those who found the time and energy to object will have to do the same again and the developer may be hoping that this time around there will be fewer objections allowing the application to proceed without the additional scrutiny being referred to the DMC would entail. Hopefully such hopes will prove unfounded, but drawing out the process certainly favours the developer. GASPS have sent out another newsletter highlighting the new application, so hopefully everyone who objected before will do so again.

Today is one of those fantastic autumnal days with clear skies and very little wind. It’s certainly cold, but not as cold as it has been and the lack of wind makes it a great day to be outside. Of course without the wind, the wind turbines will be still. That won’t matter to the developer though as they’ll still be making money from them – and that’s ultimately what this whole episode is about – money.

UPDATE: The closing date for objections is 12th October 2012 so we have a little more time than I anticipated. If you do plan on objecting, do it as soon as you can rather than waiting to the last minute.