A bid to overturn a planning condition requiring the relocation of a war memorial in Caithness will be discussed by councillors tomorrow.
RWE Innogy UK won consent for its 13-turbine development at Bad A Cheo earlier this year – but only on the condition that it moved a cairn commemorating the victims of a 1945 plane crash.
The monument overlooks the site where a Flying Fortress bomber came down, causing the deaths of six airmen.
The Scottish Government’s planning reporter said the memorial should be moved from its current home in a layby on the A9 Inverness-Thurso road at Achkeepster as a condition of the consent.
The proposal angered some in the community, including members of the local branch of the Royal British Legion (RBL).
RWE has now submitted a formal application to Highland Council to drop the condition, so the memorial does not have to be moved.
The Thurso branch of the RBL has supported RWE’s proposal, although others have said that it is the turbines that should be removed.
In a report for tomorrow’s planning committee meeting, council officials have recommended that the condition be waived.
Planner David Mudie said the determining issue was whether the proposal complied with the development plan.
He said: “The representations received indicate support for the removal of the condition requiring the relocation of the memorial.
“This does not suggest that it is the intervisibilty and open relationship between the memorial and the crash site that is most important; rather it is the cultural significance of the effort and dedication of many people to put in place a physical marker to those that made the ultimate sacrifice in a time of war.
“The removal of the condition would not result in the development being incompatible with the development plan.”
A spokeswoman for RWE said: “We have spoken to interested parties involved with the war memorial, who have requested that it should remain at its present location.
“RWE Innogy never proposed to re-site the war memorial.”
The windfarm scheme was rejected by Highland Council’s north planning committee, but RWE appealed to the Scottish Government.