DISMAY has again been expressed by local communities over Fife Council's Central Area Planning Committee decision to grant approval for 10 gas powered generators on the former Westfield Opencast mine site.

This comes just a couple of weeks after approval for a waste incinerator at the site which has been billed as a Green Business Park.

Cardenden Community Council is very concerned at the recent developments which they feel will see the former opencast site become a facility which will see green house gas emissions rise.

Meanwhile there are concerns in both Benarty and Kinglassie about the recent granting of planning permission for the incinerator and generation facility.

Said Cardenden Community Council secretary David Taylor: "The Council and Hargreaves, who own the site, are trying to promote Westfield as a Green Business Park, to produce green energy from solar panels, with industrial units to create hundreds of jobs and a rail line to reduce road traffic.

"In reality, the Council have given approval for an industrial waste site, with an incinerator and 10 gas powered generators, which will create more green house emissions, with a greater increase in road traffic and few jobs.

"Is it any wonder the local communities are frustrated and disillusioned with the Council".

There are concerns in Benarty about the plans which people fear will create greater green house gas emissions while in Kinglassie the fears are about emissions and the structure of the village's roads to deal with an increase in lorry movements as part of the granting of the applications.

Both communities are either side of the site and will be fully aware of activities at it.

The report which went before the committee concluded: "Although the proposed peaking plant is not strictly in compliance with the Development Plan expectation for Class 4, 5 or 6 uses on this site, the proposal is for an minor ancillary industrial use which represents a good fit with the general area, and is complementary to the proposed land uses recently approved for the Wider Westfield site.

"The peaking plant is not expected to cause any impacts that would of itself affect residential properties or prevent other employment uses operating nearby and indeed will, operationally and financially, enable the development of the solar arrays planned for the wider site under the PPiP. Environmental, landscape, flood risk and road safety considerations can all be met and there are no other significant material considerations causing concern. All of this being the case, this proposal is recommended for approval".