The firm behind a multimillion-pound north-east development has appealed to the Scottish Government to back the project.
Aberdeenshire Council’s Garioch area committee threw out ANM Group’s proposals for the Thainstone Business Park, near Inverurie, in August last year.
Councillors argued backing the development would have been “a leap of faith” due to increasing pressure on local roads and the impact on the local landscape.
However, the firm, which runs the Thainstone Centre, has now appealed to the Scottish Government’s Planning and Environmental Appeals Division to give the project the go-ahead.
ANM Group claim the expansion of the business park is the “next natural step for the site” and insist it could bring 500 jobs to the area.
The proposals include employment and industrial space, offices, storage and distribution units; along with a new drainage systems, an access road and associated infrastructure buildings.
Construction of a long-awaited new abattoir in the north-east had also been dependent on ANM Group securing planning consent for the business park, which was rejected by six votes to four.
Yesterday, the company’s chief executive, Grant Rogerson, said: “We had the full support of the Aberdeenshire Council’s officers, but the councillors on the Garioch Committee Council voted against planning.
“And though one of the applications out of the three submitted was indeed accepted, the route of appeal is really the only option open to us.”
A DPEA spokeswoman added the ANM Group’s appeal was “ready to move to the next stage of the appeal process”.
Kintore and District Community Council had raised concerns that, if the development was given the go-ahead, it would impact the views of Bennachie.
Speaking at the committee in August, West Garioch councillor Sheena Lonchay said she was uncomfortable supporting the scheme without “a plan in place that would help ease congestion in Thainstone”.
The news comes after it emerged the Scottish Government had allowed 209 planning applications, rejected by local authorities, to be granted between January and November 2016.