Highland councillors will next week vote on a motion to pursue a compulsory purchase order (CPO) in case it is necessary to break the deadlock threatening the future of the Nigg yard.
There is a stand-off between a multinational and an absentee Highland landlord which so far has prevented the former fabrication yard being sold.
Highland Council's Independent/SNP administration is determined to see the former fabrication yard used to its full potential. While it will continue talking to the main parties, it also wants authority for its legal team to prepare a CPO for Nigg under the provisions of the Town & Country Planning (Scotland) Act 1997.
Two-thirds of the yard is owned by KBR, until earlier this year a subsidiary of Halliburton, the oil field services provider once led by US vice-president Dick Cheney.
The yard was put on the market at the beginning of 2005, and in December that year KBR announced that the Cromarty Firth Port Author-ity was the preferred bidder for Nigg.
But 15 months later, there was still no deal. It emerged that one of the major stumbling blocks was that 76 acres of the yard are owned by the Wakelyn Trust, a family trust of the late Michael Nightingale, owner of the Cromarty Estate across the firth from Nigg.
The Wakelyn Trust had leased its land to the operators of the Nigg yard for more than 30 years.
But a clause in the lease demanded that before KBR could terminate the agreement, it would be required to remove the big sheds, fill in the multimillion-pound graving dock which was largely financed from the public purse, and reinstate the site. Or "the tenant shall pay to the landlords on demand an amount equal to the costs of such works".
Some have estimated these costs to be in excess of £20m. KBR currently pays a rent to the Wakelyn Trust, understood to be £100,000 a year.
John Rennilson, Highland's director of planning and development, said yesterday: "The authority being sought at next week's meeting is to prepare a vision and masterplan for the Nigg site working with Highlands and Islands Enterprise thereafter putting that in the European Journal for expressions of interest to help deliver that vision in effect, seeking a partner to take over the site if we go down the compulsory purchase route."
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