The Ministry of Defence has apologised for terrifying people living near the UK's nuclear bomb store at Coulport after setting off a series of explosions last week.
People living in Ardentinny, a village on the opposite shore of Loch Long a mile from Coulport, say they have been "traumatised" by the detonation of 23 blasts over five days, which made it feel like they were living in a "war zone". They are furious the MoD failed to warn them.
The MoD says the blasts were part of a staff training exercise, but has refused to elaborate. It told residents there was "nothing to worry about".
The Argyll and Bute MSP, Mike Russell yesterday wrote to the UK Defence Secretary, Philip Hammond, after being contacted by residents. "Coulport has been a bad neighbour and it needs to apologise and mend its ways," he said. "Many residents were very worried by the blasts which were at times intense enough to shake houses. The fact that no warning was given and that there has been no adequate explanation makes the situation even worse."
The blasts started on Monday. On Wednesday, after being asked, the MoD said they were finished for the week but then let off 11 explosions on Thursday and Friday.
"We have been told that further exercises may take place next Tuesday or Wednesday. However, we have no way of knowing if this is correct," said David McDowall from the community website Ardentinny.org.
Resident Bill Bincham phoned the police after pictures fell off his wall as he thought there had been an accident. He runs livery stables in Glenfinart. On Thursday, one of his clients was pinned against a wall by five horses panicked by a blast.
An MoD spokeswoman said: "This exercise was part of training for staff at RNAD Coulport. I'm afraid I can't say any more than that." She said that it was "not related in any way" to Exercise Joint Warrior, a huge Nato exercise taking place around Scotland.
The spokeswoman added: "We apologise for any distress caused to the local community by the loud noises. We will ensure advance warning is given for any future training."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article