It's no go for M-I's proposal for barytes mining in Scotland, at least as far as the Secretary of State is concerned. On 24 March this year, some three years and nine months after the original application was passed, M-I Great Britain Ltd finally received the Secretary of State's decision on its appeal against the decision by Perth and Kinross District Council to refuse planning permission for the extraction of barytes by underground mine and associated development at Duntanlich in the Fonab Forest and Ballechin Estate, Perthshire. Although the appeal need not have been directly determined by him, the Secretary of State exercised his powers to determine the appeal himself because the proposals would constitute a major industrial development which would affect a National Scenic Area, would have significant implications for the A827 trunk road, and would be of interest to other Government Departments and appointed bodies. The appeal was the subject of a public local inquiry held in three sessions between 11 May and 21 October 1993. The Secretary of State considered the evidence of the inquiry, the Reporter's Findings of fact and his conclusions, and adopted them for the purposes of his own decision, subject to some alterations to the draft National Planning Policy Guideline (NPPG): Land for Mineral Working, which was finalised in April 1994. The Secretary of State considered that the amendment of the wording of the final NPPG (NPPG 4) did not affect his conclusions on the appeal.
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