An ambitious scheme is in the pipeline to clean up the contaminated former colliery site of Riddochhill Bing near Blackburn in West Lothian. The council owns 40ha of land at Riddochhill and it will contribute £380,000 from the contaminated land budget towards the scheme. The estimated cost of the development, including rehabilitation and site servicing, is £8-10 million.
Riddochhill Bing already has detailed planning consent for six 72,000 square metre storage and distribution units and a further 16,000 square metres of smaller scale business, general industrial and, storage and distribution units.
- West Lothian Council has approved a private sector partner to carry out rehabilitation of the old Riddochhill Bing at Blackburn.
- A consortium of Waystone Ltd and Hall Construction Services Ltd has been selected as the preferred bidder for the joint venture project.
Ownership of the site will be transferred to the joint venture project once the agreement has been finalised.
" This is an ambitious scheme to clean up contaminated land and create development sites for business and industry," said Councillor Willie Dunn, convener of the council?s enterprise and development committee.
"Due to the scale of investment required the project is being promoted as a joint venture between the council and a private sector partner selected by competitive tender. The council will be entitled to a share of the profits from this scheme and income generated will be invested in other contaminated and brownfield projects."
4.15 hectares of the land needed for the development are not owned by West Lothian Council and it was announced in April 2007 that the council would initiate a compulsory purchase at a cost of £91,000, plus fees and interest after negotiations with the owner failed to agree a price.
