Ministers called in the planning application for a development at Balmedie, Aberdeenshire on December 4.

Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Sustainable Growth, John Swinney said: "This application raises issues of importance that require consideration at a national level. I have now been able to evaluate fully the options open to us to ensure that Ministers can give proper consideration to this major and controversial application.

"Given the nature of the application and the considerable public interest it is important that the process to examine the issues is as efficient, transparent and inclusive as possible. For those reasons I have determined that there should be a Public Local Inquiry, under the stewardship of a very experienced reporter.

"There is already a large amount of information on the application in the public domain and I would expect the reporter to take full account of that and to focus the inquiry on the issues that are in dispute.