SNP ministers took over a controversial planning application partly to help enrich the Chinese-state backers who met Nicola Sturgeon last week, it has emerged.
Planning Minister Kevin Stewart said his “call-in” of a grid connection for the Inch Cape offshore wind farm gave it a better chance of securing UK government funding next year.
More than £500m is being made available to renewables firms under the so-called “contracts for difference” scheme as part of a nationwide drive for clean growth.
The call-in means SNP ministers will now have the final say over whether to approve the project rather than East Lothian Council.
The windfarm and a proposed substation at the former Cockenzie power plant are being driven by a subsidiary of China’s State Development & Investment Corporation (SDIC).
Sturgeon in China row as ministers intervene in planning case
Mr Stewart began the call-in process on April 4, but it was formally executed on April 9, the day before the First Minister meet SDIC in Beijing on a week-long visit to China.
The timing prompted opposition claims the Scottish Government was kowtowing to the Chinese authorities and ministers were riding roughshod over local democracy.
There was also anger the substation could wreck an alternative council-backed plan for the redevelopment of the Cockenzie site, and cost the local economy jobs.
Answering an urgent question from East Lothian Labour MSP Iain Gray, Mr Stewart said: “Consideration of planning cases is focused on the merits of the case. The identity of the applicant is not a planning consideration that is relevant to the assessment of any application.”
However Mr Stewart suggested the wind farm’s finances had been a factor in the call-in.
Sturgeon facing Holyrood grilling over China planning row
He said: “There is a deadline in quarter 1 of 2019 for a bid for United Kingdom funding for the Inch Cape development through the contracts for difference process.
“To be eligible, all permissions and consents must be in place. Calling in the planning application gives a greater chance of a timely decision ahead of the funding deadline.
“The [planning] reporter will consider local views including the local development plan, and the calling in of the application does not predetermine the outcome of the planning process.”
Mr Gray pointed out that in 2014 a substation application for the windfarm on a nearby site was left to the council to decide - but that was when it was under Spanish owners.
He said: “In 2016 this project was bought by Red Rock Power, a company that is owned by the Chinese State Development and Investment Corporation, which the First Minister was meeting last week at the very moment when the planning decision was called in.
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“Can the minister understand that it looks to my constituents as if he is prepared to ride roughshod over their interests and aspirations, to protect the interests and aspirations of a Chinese-backed project that will create not one job in East Lothian?
“If he wants to convince my constituents otherwise, will he do that now, by returning this decision to East Lothian Council, where it belongs?”
Mr Stewart insisted there was there was “no connection whatsoever” between the call-in and Ms Sturgeon’s China visit.
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