The Kinross-shire landowner who owns the site that was used for the T in the Park music festival for 18 years is said to be suing oil giants BP for £8.5 million.
It has been reported that Douglas Alexander, of Balado Park, is taking legal action against the company after it was revealed that his legal team feels BP breached a compensation agreement previously agreed between the two parties in 1977, and then in a variation of the deal in 2001.
Mr Alexander is set to lose millions of pounds after it was announced that the hugely popular festival would up sticks and move to Strathallan in Perthshire from next year.
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) wanted the festival to move from Balado because part of the site runs over the Forties Pipeline, which carries North Sea oil south to Grangemouth.
The HSE had claimed an accident at the pipeline could cause “a large number of casualties” and result in people receiving “a dangerous dose of thermal radiation”.
DF Concerts, which runs T in the Park, held the festival at Balado for the last time earlier this month and will now move to the tranquil surroundings of Strathallan Castle, near Auchterarder.
Mr Alexander’s legal representatives have lodged papers at the Court of Session in Edinburgh, where they will challenge BP.
It is understood that a six-day hearing will be held there next month.
The Courier contacted Mr Alexander but he declined to comment, stating that he could not do so due to “legal proceedings”.
BP is believed to claim that there were reasons other than the pipeline for moving T in the Park from Kinross-shire, including “noise level breaches”.
However, a source who is on good terms with Mr Alexander said: “The festival has never in its 21 years exceeded its noise level.”
Gordon Banks, MP for Ochil and South Perthshire, is supporting Mr Alexander’s legal fight.
“Mr Alexander has an arrangement with BP that if he can’t make a living from his land he gets compensation,” he said.
“BP needs to step up to the mark and end the matter before it goes to court.