Campaigners fighting plans to transfer up to nine million tonnes of crude between tankers anchored in open water at the mouth of the Cromarty Firth have handed a petition with more than 100,000 signatories to Highland Council.
The Cromarty Firth Port Authority has applied for a licence to conduct the transfers, at a marine location described by experts as one of the most important dolphin sites in Europe. It is also close to other important protected environmental sites.
The port authority has been told by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) to withdraw the application and resubmit another after more consultation.
The Highland Council is one body that has to be consulted and the petition was handed to council leader Margaret Davidson.
Cromarty Rising the group leading the opposition to the plan, say it is too dangerous as an oil spill could herald an environmental catastrophe. They stress this is not nimbyism, that for three decades ship to ship oil transfers have been undertaken at the nearby jetty at the Nigg oil terminal There tankers have been tied up securely during the process, and in a statement the group said:
“Cromarty Rising has recently been made aware that Cromarty Firth Port Authority Solicitors see no legal impediment what-so-ever to the continued use on Nigg Terminal for ship to ship transfers. The Secretary of State Transport (Westminster) also confirmed, after a month long detailed review, that there is a perfectly valid ship to ship licence still in place for Nigg Terminal.”
A spokesman for the port authority responded: “The Port is acting in the interests of the majority of our stakeholders but we do understand that some people are against our application. They have the right to show their feelings by protesting, as they are doing. As the statutory harbour authority, it is important our stakeholders understand that we have a legal obligation to protect the environment of the Cromarty Firth.
“Due to the amount of work involved in reviewing this refined application, it will not be completed to allow the 42 day consultation before the end of May. To ensure that all statutory stakeholders and local communities have the time to consider the revised document in full, the Port will not be submitting our refined application until later in the year."
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 here