The developers of a massive Moray Firth wind farm development are to form a local organisation to maximise new job opportunities in the region.
The Flame group (Fraserburgh Local Alliance with Moray East) will bring together the town’s harbour board, Aberdeenshire Council, North College, MHI Vestas and the Moray East Offshore Windfarm.
It has been established to develop the economic opportunities that will be created by the Moray East project.
Wind farm developers EDP Renewables said the group will meet every month to discuss potential new developments in Fraserburgh and other projects, while North East College Fraserburgh will be used for local job training.
No cash sum has been put aside for the project, but a spokesman for the wind farm said: “All economic opportunities will be set up through Flame.”
In June, Fraserburgh harbour landed a lucrative contract for a new maintenance centre connected to the Moray East wind development.
The centre will play a crucial part in the multi-million-pound project to build nearly 100 turbines in the Moray Firth.
Once complete and operational, they should be able to power nearly a million homes.
The 20,000sq ft site will include a two-storey building, berthing area for wind farm support vessels, pontoon for cargo and crew transport, a storage area and staff car parking for up to 40 vehicles.
Aberdeenshire Council have a number of schemes set up to help businesses through tendering for the contracts associated with the project, with each new contract to be run through a regulated competitive contracting scheme.
A spokesman for Moray East added: “There’s a local interface that enables local supply chain companies to participate in that competition as they
know what’s coming up. It also puts the local authority and Scottish Enterprise in position because they know what the market is like and can provide support for particular companies.
“We had a series of meetings with different local stakeholders that culminated at the end of last week with the establishment of a new local committee,” added the spokesman.
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