Court bid to halt power station

The Hunterston B nuclear plant is scheduled for shut-down in 2016

Papers have been lodged at the Court of Session in Edinburgh which could prevent a new coal-fired power station being built in Ayrshire.

Campaigners are asking for a judicial review of the plans for the power station at Hunterston.

They claim the Scottish Government did not consult on the proposals, in line with European law.

The power station was a late addition to the National Planning Framework, which outlines major projects.

The government said all projects included in the planning framework still required planning permission on which the public would be able to have their say.

But campaigners said that only included details of the building, not the scheme itself.

Planning Democracy, which is campaigning for a more inclusive planning system, said if the legal action succeeded, it could affect the Scottish Government's energy strategy to remove dependency on nuclear power.

The Hunterston facility would be located next to British Energy's nuclear power plant, which is due to be shut down by 2016.

It would also be close to deep water port facilities, as it would be dependent mainly on imported coal, which has lower emissions than coal from Scottish fields.

The use of coal will be controversial, as environmental campaigners push to reduce Britain's heavy dependency on polluting fossil fuels for its electricity.

The proposed 1600MW plant would be able to power the average needs of two million homes.