Future of £150m East Ayrshire whisky facility to be settled
Councillors will decide whether to give the plant the go ahead- despite a number of objections from the local community
Last updated 11th Apr 2024
A proposed £150m whisky facility in East Ayrshire that would hold up to half a million barrels of spirits will be decided on Friday.
Planners have recommended the application be approved, despite a number of objectors claiming it would impact on health and the environment, at East Ayrshire Council’s planning committee on Friday.
As whisky is deemed hazardous at such levels, the facility must meet regulations to ensure the safety of staff and the public.
Beam Suntory wants to build the 70,000 sqm whisky maturation facility just off the M77 north of Kilmarnock at South Drumboy Farm.
The facility would include offices and warehouse space. Whisky would be brought to the site in bulk road tankers and then retained on site for several years to mature.
Tankers would also be used to export the spirit to other Scottish sites.
Site promises to bring jobs to the region
Beam Suntory says it would support 20 office staff and 20 operational staff at the outset. It would operate from 7am to 7pm, with HGV deliveries between 8am and 6pm, Monday to Friday.
The development plan includes 14 warehouses, each divided into cells, each of which would hold up to 40,000 casks, with a total of up to 568,000 ‘standard barrels’.
The warehouses would be built around 200m from the A77.
The application attracted a significant number of objections, largely around the potential impact of emissions resulting from whisky maturation.
A total of 34 objections were lodged, including from Fenwick and Moscow & Waterside Community Councils.
Concerns raised about potential health and environmental impact
These are largely based on the potential impact on public health and wellbeing, the release of ethanol into the environment, the development of industry in a rural setting, and that the development would result in ten years of ‘disruption’.
It’s understood that some loss of spirit from casks is a common part of the whisky making process with the loss of ethanol averaging at around 2 per cent each year.
In 2021 Mairi McAllan MSP, then minister for environment, said that: “The main release to air from Scotch whisky maturation is the fugitive emission of ethanol, which disperses very quickly in the atmosphere and is not considered to be harmful to human health through this exposure route.”
Despite these objections planners have recommended that the application be approved, stating that it would be a boost to the local economy.
They said: “The proposed development would not have a significant adverse impact on the visual amenity of the area or on the residential amenity of receptors in the vicinity, will not give rise to an unacceptable traffic hazard and would not result in any unacceptable loss of or impact on ecological habitats or species.
Proposal has been "designed sympathetically" for the landscape
“Whilst is it recognised that the proposed development is of a substantial scale, the proposal has been designed sympathetically so it can be absorbed by the rural landscape within which it will sit.
The siting of the buildings will not significantly impact the level of amenity currently enjoyed by those residential properties in the vicinity of the site, and it is deemed that the proposal is acceptable in terms of landscape impact and visual amenity.
“The proposed development is likely to give an economic boost to East Ayrshire through both the construction period and the operational period, as it will provide additional employment opportunity.
“Whilst the objections raise a range of valid planning considerations, none are considered to be of sufficient weight that would indicate the application should be refused.”