Cromarty Rising

Well, the last full Highland Council meeting draws close (9th March). We are planning a small protest between 8 and 9 at the Highland Council HQ in Inverness. Would be great to see you there if you want to pop down before work or whatever you have planned for the day and remind the councillors […]

An interesting article in the P&J recent (https://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/fp/news/highlands/1175183/ambitious-plans-revealed-to-turn-nairn-harbour-into-watersports-market-leader/) suggested an ambitious programme of development for Nairn harbour to turn it into the “watersports capital of Scotland”. Although unfunded currently, there is a clear vision – how will that vision sit with huge rusting oil tankers sitting opposite the harbour, belching toxic VOC’s into the atmosphere […]

An interesting question that we’ve touched on before. Currently, the main legal argument for not undertaking the STS at the location where the CFPA want to do it is based on the fact that both the area is protected for its nature conservation interests, in this case being designated a Special Area of Conservation (SAC) […]

Good news, Cllr McCallum, Highland Council convenor has finally provided reply to an email sent by one of our team over a month ago. The reply has been copied from another response received from the council and lays out how the council will deal with the new STS application, however it at least it sets […]

One of the issues raised in the initial consultation was the differences in the process between Nigg terminal and anchorages at sea. Intertek’s response was to say: “The comparison to operations at Nigg Oil Terminal are often mis-informed e.g. statements that VOCs recovery, noise level is lower, ballast water is treated and operations are overall […]

In one of our many FOI’s on STS, we noticed there was an email from Mr Buskie to a council official, describing the STS process as not much different from filling up a car at petrol station (we paraphrase, but that was the gist of it). At the time we though that was ridiculous, but […]

Much of our focus until now has been on the potential impact on dolphins. However, we must not forget the importance of the area being proposed for STS for birds – this has been largely forgotten about by Intertek in their application, maybe the new one will fare better? Don’t take our word for it […]

We thought we’d share dome photos with you to put things in perspective. The photo below is taken from Chanonry point – we believe the recently parked oil rig is sitting on anchorage 14 (see http://www.cromartyrising.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/figure-3-1-ship-to-ship-transfer-location-with-correct-scale-2.pdf for map). It remains to be seen if this anchorage will be used in the new application but it […]

We’ve let Intertek off the hook in this up until now. They are the consultants delivering the STS application on behalf of the CFPA. They produced the first application which the MCA instructed the CFAP to withdraw. To be fair, when they met Cromarty District Community Council behind closed doors back in January 2016, they […]

Lets go back to 2014, the CFPA got a £4million handout from Highlands Islands Enterprise for it phase 3 – it was a grant – on top of another £11 million or so in European funding. The job was to reclaim a chunk of the Cromarty Firth to build a new lay-down area and quayside. […]