Safety concerns raised over plans to build park and ride for highway workers

Plans to build a giant park and ride for workers building a new £1.6bn super highway in East Lothian have been called in by local councillors after concerns were raised over road safety.

Metlen Energy and Metals, who are involved in the construction of a substation and converter near Torness as part of the East Green Link Network project (EGL1), have applied to East Lothian Council for planning permission for a 261 vehicle space car park which they will bus workers to and from each day.

The temporary facility is intended to be in use for three years and the company says it will operate from 6am to 7pm Monday to Friday and 6.30am to 3.30pm at weekends.

However concerns have been raised about the impact of the traffic on surrounding roads as well as noise from the comings and goings of the workforce.

Councillor Donna Collins called in the application which was recommended for approval by council officers and will now go before elected members for a decision next week.

Councillor Collins said she had called it in due to “concern of road safety around Queens Road and the Spott Road Industrial Estate by local residents, business owners, and users of the industrial estate”.

The Eastern Green Link project (EGL1) is a two-gigawatt high voltage direct current electrical ‘super highway’ that will run from the Torness area in East Lothian, to Hawthorn Pit in County Durham, via the North Sea.

Groundwork got under way last year on the creation of an onshore converter station, which will connect to a new substation near Braxton.

The converter station is being built on land between Dunbar Energy Recovery Facility and Dunbar Landfill by a consortium of GE Vernova and Metlen Energy & Metals.

SP Energy, which is overseeing the project, has said the Eastern Link will make the North Sea a “hidden powerhouse” of Europe.

It estimates around 12km of underground cables will be required to link the new substation, converter station and landfall sites in East Lothian with 176km sub-sea cables linking Torness and County Durham sites.

Dunbar Community Council and West Barns Community Council have both raised objections with concerns over increased congestion on surrounding roads and noise and emissions. They also called on the applicants to consider alternative sites.

The council received 12 objections in total. Officers said the land proposed for the park and ride was part of a larger area already earmarked for employment use in the council’s Local Development Plan.

They said that while the car park was not “strictly an employment generating use” it was supporting construction works at the EGL1 project.

They added: “The EGL1 project is a nationally important development that is required to safeguard the energy needs of the country.

“The completion of this nationally important project and the relationship of the park and ride facility to it is an important material planning consideration in the determination of this planning application.”

The committee will decide the application at a meeting next week.