A proposal to attach a ski slope, picnic area and climbing wall to a controversial multi-million pound incinerator has been branded “a dangerous back-of-the-fag-packet plan”.
Former city council leader Barney Crockett has asked Sport Aberdeen to investigate the idea for the £150million energy-from-waste facility planned for East Tullos.
Similar plants in Denmark and the Netherlands will incorporate similar leisure facilities and Mr Crockett said he hoped the mixing of leisure and industry could allay health fears over the scheme.
But the plan, put forward at last week’s finance committee, has been met with fury by some in the south of the Dee community and last night a local councillor questioned whether Labour member Mr Crockett had support from council leader Jenny Laing.
The incinerator will convert waste from homes in the city, Aberdeenshire and Moray into energy, with a 260ft chimney towering over the site near to a housing estate and Tullos school.
Planning permission was granted by councillors in October and work is expected to begin in 2019.
Torry SNP councillor Graham Dickson has called for further clarity over the leisure idea.
He said: “We have had months of consultation after years of planning and now, at the last minute, members of the administration are proposing to add a ski slope and a climbing wall to the facility.”
There were questions over “whether it could fit on the current site, whether it would be in competition with Garthdee Alpine Sports and Transition Extreme” or if the council leader “plans to close them and indeed whether she has even commissioned a leisure impact assessment”, he said.
“Vitally the council leader must clarify why an industrial site would be chosen for a leisure complex. Otherwise she must confirm that councillor Crockett is going rogue and what he is proposing is nothing more than a dangerous back-of-the-fag-packet plan.”
Mrs Laing said: “surprised by Councillor Dickson’s comments given he and his SNP colleagues failed to raise any concerns at the meeting.
“This is typical of Councillor Dickson and the SNP who voted for the energy from waste plant then mislead the public by claiming to be opposed to it. “
