Cromarty Rising

Another day and the petition is heading towards 90,000 signatures – could it be 100,000 by the weekend? Amazing support – thank you everyone………Another week and news that yet another community council comes out against STS – this time Balloch. Welcome aboard folks – the land surrounding the firth is looking very red! Altogether 26 community councils now oppose this plan with 1 for and 2 neutral.

So, 26 community councils oppose, ten of thousands of individual and the issue is going to come before Scottish Parliament committee(s) in the next few weeks. When are you going to wake up Mr Buskie and Mr Russell?

The people surrounding the port do not want this, the people of Scotland don’t want this and it turns out that there are lot of people throughout the UK that don’t want this either. We know that you are going to come up with a reworked application, probably with 18a as the only anchorage and that you will show that there will be plenty of water there so there will be little risk of grounding along with some heavily caveated modeling that tells us that it is very unlikely that something will go wrong and if it does go wrong you’ll be able to get a suitable emergency tug here in no time at all while deftly ignoring the concerns of the people of the Moray and Cromarty Firth coasts and potential impact on their livelihoods and well-being.

All very convenient when you think about the disaster that was the original (2015) application. Everyone who objected would have got their email today from the MCA officially telling them that this application has been withdrawn:

“The MCA has continued to engage with the Department for Transport and CFPA in order to establish the best way forward once the application is resubmitted.  As a consequence, the MCA has directed CFPA to withdraw the oil transfer licence application made in December 2015 and submit a new application.  Once this is received a further public consultation based on this new application will be undertaken.”

Interestingly – by the sounds of the wording it would appear that Department of Transport concerns may have caused the direction to withdraw, no doubt the imminent threat of judicial review. So, it sounds like the new application will go ahead anyway and we will all receive the opportunity to have our say which may or not be taken seriously.

If this does proceed just remember that when something does go wrong, and it will – it will be a environmental disaster on a scale we have never experience in this count and it will be the chief executive, the chairman and the board of directors will be held to account both by the people and by the law.

It’s OK though, Mr Russell and Mr Buskie, you don’t need to worry about who is going to have the top bunk, because WE, the people, your stakeholders, will not let this happen. Wrong plan in the wrong place – open your ears and listen, pay attention to what is going on around you. Are we still “a vocal minority?”