Oil Leak 52 The Ferret & petitions

An interesting article published by “The Ferret” titled “Port Chief Denies Conflict of Interest Claims over new Firms”. You can read it here https://theferret.scot/port-chief-denies-conflict-interest-claims-new-firms/

Like our previous leak regarding HAWK MIP LLP, which Mr Buskie and Mr Brayshaw are both member of, there is nothing illegal with what they are doing. Global have highlighted the difference in port practice between Lerwick and Aberdeen and Cromarty Firth. As we say in the quote it is not our place to get involved in these issues – our sole interest is to prevent ship to ship transfers of crude oil at sea in the Cromarty Firth. However, to repeat the quote, if the alleged conflicts of interest have in any way affected the rationale for the relentless perusal of the ship to ship licence, in the face of overwhelming public opposition, then we believe this should be subject to detailed public scrutiny either by the Scottish Government or independent enquiry. We aim to achieve this through our petition to the Scottish Parliament which is due to go live later today. The petition has changed slightly from the one we submitted before Xmas – it needs a national viewpoint, using the current case as an example – it reads:

“Calling on the Scottish Parliament to urge the Scottish Government to ensure that environmental legislation in Scotland is sufficient to prevent ship-to-ship transfers of crude oil in environmentally sensitive locations, such as the Inner Moray Firth, and to enhance the accountability of trust port boards to their stakeholders.”

Hopefully we can get as many signatures on that as possible as it could be the first step to putting this issue to bed – Scotland-wide, once and for all as well as reforming the ridiculous situation we have with Trust Ports where they can choose to completely ignore their stakeholders forcing them to take legal action. More on the petition and where you find it / sign it later.

We’ll leave the last word to Transport Scotland which really just emphasise how messed up this whole situation is – remember Trust Ports are there to manage public assets in the public interest – these our assets, the people of Scotland – they do not belong to the Ports.

A Transport Scotland spokesman said: “Individual trust ports may be empowered to create subsidiaries or joint ventures as set out in their local legislation and it is their responsibility to ensure that they are working within their existing powers.

“The creation and operation of such subsidiaries is an operational matter for the port and it has no obligation to notify Transport Scotland in this regard.”