Rob Edwards

Green delight as plans for Hunterston coal plant cancelled

26 June 2012

Scotland’s most controversial planning application for a new coal-fired power station at Hunterston in North Ayrshire has been withdrawn.

A surprise announcement late this afternoon by the applicants, Ayrshire Power, has delighted environmentalists, and means that a public inquiry planned for this autumn will now be cancelled.

Ayrshire Power, which is owned by Peel Energy, said it had taken the decision “due to the level of uncertainty surrounding the ability to secure the necessary financial investment to build the power station in the foreseeable economic climate.”

But the proposed power station also provoked over 22,000 objections and was facing an increasingly uphill struggle convincing decision-makers that it was justified or necessary - even with its partial plans to capture and store some its carbon pollution.

"Peel has finally seen sense over the most unpopular planning application ever in Scotland,” said Dr Richard Dixon, the director of WWF Scotland. “With the local community and North Ayrshire Council against it, and no chance of winning the public inquiry, walking away was the only sensible option.”

Scotland failing to meet climate change targets

for Sunday Herald, 24 June 2012

Scotland is in danger of losing its much-lauded world-leading role in cutting climate pollution unless it takes urgent action to reduce carbon emissions from cars and homes, ministers have been warned.

With current policies, the Scottish government is on track to miss its historic climate change targets - agreed three years ago today - every year except one between 2010 and 2022. 

And according to a powerful coalition of more than 60 organisations, Stop Climate Chaos Scotland (SCCS), this is because ministers are failing to do enough to curb vehicle exhaust fumes and to save energy in buildings by better insulation.

The Climate Change (Scotland) Act was unanimously passed by the Scottish Parliament on 24 June 2009. It committed the Scottish government to cutting the country’s greenhouse gas emissions 42% by 2020 and 80% by 2050, compared to 1990 levels.

But an analysis for SCCS shows that if the government continues on its current path, the only year in which it will not breach its carbon budget before 2022 is 2013. By 2022 emissions will be more than five million tonnes, or 13%, over the target.

Sleepless in the North Sea: the risks of working long hours

from Hesamag, June 2012

Jake Malloy is angry. Sitting in his cramped and recently flooded office near the docks in Aberdeen, he is talking about his union’s 20-year campaign to reduce the working hours of North Sea oil and gas workers.

The UK’s highest court has recently ruled against the union. “Nothing’s changed,” he says. “Offshore workers continue to work 12 hours a night in very hazardous, high risk environments, and nothing’s changed.”

Malloy, the offshore energy organiser with the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT), lost a legal battle in the Supreme Court in London in December 2011. Technically, it was about the application of the European Union (EU) Working Time Directive to offshore workers, and what that meant for legal holiday entitlements.

But it was also about how long working hours degrade quality of life, endanger workers’ health and ultimately put lives at risk. It was about shift patterns, living accommodation and the danger of leaks and accidents.

Underlying the arguments were different visions of the kind of working life, and the kind of society, that people in a modern industrial age deserve, and how to balance that against profits made for shareholders. For many, the outcome clearly demonstrated that the UK North Sea oil industry has a long way to go to deliver a decent job for its employees.

Historic radiation saved by university U-turn

from The Herald, 19 June 2012

A historic century-old cache of radioactivity has been saved from the dump after protests from professors forced a last-minute U-turn by the University of Glasgow.

University authorities had been planning to send an ancient box of radium and other radioactive materials collected by the celebrated Nobel-prize-winning chemist, Frederick Soddy, to be buried in a nuclear waste dump in England.

But in the face of fierce opposition from scientists over the last few days, they have relented. They are now considering instead putting the box on display behind leaded glass at the university’s Hunterian museum.

Soddy worked at Glasgow University between 1904 and 1914, and was one of the early pioneers in understanding radioactivity. He was the first to describe different forms of the same element as isotopes, and was awarded the Nobel prize for chemistry in 1921 for his work.

He left behind in Glasgow a plain wooden box containing 11 glass vials of radioactive samples, regarded by scientists as “unique and priceless”. One vial of radium is thought to have been given him by Marie Curie, who famously helped discover radioactivity and won two Nobel prizes.

Two-year plan to get rid of Trident backed by Scottish government

from Sunday Herald, 17 June 2012 

A plan for disarming Trident missiles within days of independence and ridding Scotland of nuclear weapons within two years has been backed by Scottish ministers.

A practical guide on how to dismantle the Trident nuclear weapons system and remove it from the Clyde produced by anti-nuclear campaigners has also been pronounced credible by leading international experts on nuclear weapons. 

The guide says that the Vanguard-class submarines armed with Trident missiles could all be recalled to the Faslane naval base on Gareloch, and have their warheads disarmed within a week. After eight days, all their missiles could be disabled.

Within a year all 220 nuclear warheads at Faslane and the nearby Coulport armaments depot on Loch Long could be disabled. Within two years the warheads could be removed from Scotland by road, and within four years they could all be dismantled.

The guide - to be published by the Scottish Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (SCND) today – has been warmly welcomed by the Scottish government. “We are firmly committed to the earliest possible withdrawal of Trident from Scotland, and to the pursuit of a world which is free from nuclear weapons,” a government spokeswoman told the Sunday Herald. 

“The suggested timetable is a welcome indication of how quickly Trident could be removed once Scotland has the powers to decide its own defence and security policy, and we note that various international experts have highlighted a credible timetable.”

The Scottish government was committed, however, to keeping the Clyde bases going. It wanted “the development and diversification of HM Naval Base Clyde as a vibrant and sustainable conventional naval base in an independent Scotland,” the spokeswoman added.

SNP a ‘threat’ to Trident, admits MoD

from Sunday Herald, 17 June 2012

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) is secretly worried that the Scottish National Party (SNP) could jeopardise the UK’s nuclear weapons programme, the Sunday Herald can reveal.

In an internal report summarising the main risks to Westminster’s plans to keep submarine-launched, nuclear-tipped Trident missiles on the Clyde, the MoD describes the SNP’s anti-nuclear stance as a “potential threat”. Lawyers and UK ministers will need to be mobilised in response, the report says. 

The SNP government at Holyrood has hit back by reiterating its promise to get rid of Trident through independence. And anti-nuclear groups say that the future of Trident is now in the balance.

Trident missiles are carried by four Vanguard-class nuclear-powered submarines stationed at the Faslane naval base on Gareloch. Up to 220 nuclear warheads are either loaded on the submarines or stored at the high-security armaments depot at nearby Coulport on Loch Long.

The SNP’s long-standing policy, backed by the Scottish Parliament, has been to try and remove the missiles from the Clyde. Launching the Yes campaign for the independence referendum last month, the SNP leader and First Minister, Alex Salmond, promised to defend Scotland “without the obscenity of nuclear weapons”.

Scotland to get bigger role in UN, after praise from Ban Ki-moon

from Sunday Herald, 17 June 2012

Scotland is planning to boost its role within the United Nations (UN) after winning warm praise from the international body’s secretary-general, Ban Ki-moon. 

In a personal letter to the First Minister, Alex Salmond, Ban said he was delighted by the Scottish government’s “deep commitment” to achieving sustainable energy. He was pleased that the government wanted to work with the UN to promote energy efficiency and renewable energy for all. 

“With an abundance of natural resources paired with ambitious renewable targets, Scotland is in an excellent position to play a leading role in our common efforts to find lasting sustainable solutions to the world’s pressing energy challenges,” wrote Ban.

He addressed Salmond as “his excellency” and invited his office to liaise with UN officials “on ways to deepen the engagement of your government with the efforts of the United Nations.”

This follows a meeting between Salmond and Ban in January at the World Future Energy Summit in Abu Dhabi. Salmond has now written to UN officials to begin the process of closer cooperation on energy policy.

Cutting inspections can cause deaths

comment from Sunday Herald, 10 June 2012

Prevention, they say, is better than cure. That is the key lesson that should be learnt from the tragic outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease in Edinburgh last week.

It’s all very well for the regulatory authorities to be crawling over suspected culprits like a rash now - but where were they beforehand? Much sorrow and pain would have been saved if health inspectors had stopped the deadly bacteria from spreading over a large part of the city in the first place.

But, as we reveal today, the UK Health and Safety Executive and Scottish local authority environmental health departments have suffered serious cutbacks in recent years, losing up to a fifth of their staff. Of course no-one can say for sure that this caused the Edinburgh outbreak.

But we can be pretty sure that fewer inspectors and fewer inspections make it more likely that there will be further outbreaks like this in the future. If companies think they can get away with cutting corners to save money in these straightened times, they will – and the consequences could be more unnecessary deaths and illness.

The cutbacks that could cause legionella

from Sunday Herald, 10 June 2012

Severe cutbacks in the number of safety inspectors and inspections could have allowed the outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease in Edinburgh and may cause future outbreaks in Scotland, experts have warned.

The Sunday Herald can reveal that the City of Edinburgh Council has cut its environmental health officers by 18% within the last three years – double the average cut of 9% imposed by all Scottish councils. The number of officials responsible for protecting public health in the city has reduced from 61 in 2009 to 50 in 2011.

The UK government’s Health and Safety Executive (HSE), which helps to prevent companies across the country from harbouring and spreading the deadly legionella bacteria, has also suffered serious cuts. Its UK field operations division responsible for inspections has lost 18% of its staff – more than 250 - between 2007 and 2011.

According to the trade union, Prospect, which represents HSE inspectors, the number of preventative workplace inspections was slashed by a third last year on the instructions of UK ministers, from 30,000 to 20,000 a year.

The cutbacks were described as “staggering, shocking and savage” by one leading expert, Professor Andrew Watterson, head of the Occupational and Environment Research Group at the University of Stirling. “The crippling impact of cuts in staff numbers and resources is now threatening public health,” he said.

National museum named as legionella suspect

from Sunday Herald, 10 June 2012

The hugely popular National Museum of Scotland has been named as a new suspect in the investigation into the cause of the outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease in Edinburgh.

The UK government’s Health and Safety Executive (HSE) told the Sunday Herald that its inspectors visited the museum in Chambers Street on Friday as part of its continuing efforts to pinpoint the source of the infection.

On the same day it was announced that two million people have visited the museum since its £47 million upgrade ten months ago. It was said to have become the most popular tourist attraction in Scotland.

The HSE also confirmed that it had paid a visit to an Italian defence electronics company, Selex Galileo, at Crewe Toll in the city. This brings the number of sites whose cooling towers have been checked for the deadly legionella bacteria to six. 

A spokeswoman for the National Museum of Scotland confirmed that it had received a “precautionary visit” from HSE inspectors. “They checked our documentation and procedures and there were no immediate concerns raised,” said a museum spokeswoman.

Swallows contaminated by Sellafield’s radioactivity

from The Guardian, 08 June 2012

Swallows nesting at the Sellafield nuclear complex in Cumbria have been contaminated with low levels of radioactivity from the site, according to the Environment Agency.

Monitoring by the site's operator, Sellafield Limited, has found traces of radioactivity in the birds' droppings. This is thought to come from the insects they have consumed around the storage ponds for radioactive waste .

Investigations have been launched by the agency, the government's Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR) and Sellafield, while measures are being taken to try and prevent the contamination from recurring. According to Sellafield, the levels of radioactivity discovered were very low and there was "no threat" to public health.

"There is no direct pathway for exposure to members of the public," said a Sellafield spokesman. "Measures are in place to reduce the possibility of birds gaining access to facilities."

Nutrients and nesting materials are being removed to try and make the site less attractive for birds' breeding. "Possible problems are reduced by applying the principle of good housekeeping and the incorporation of bird exclusion measures," the spokesman added.

Exposed: the dirty beaches that won prizes for being clean

from Sunday Herald, 03 June 2012 

Keep Scotland Beautiful (KSB), the government-funded anti-litter charity, has come under fierce attack for giving high-profile “seaside awards” to beaches that have been officially condemned as badly polluted.

Five bathing waters in Ayrshire, Aberdeenshire and Fife rated as having “poor” water quality by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa) have been publicly lauded by KSB for their “high standards of cleanliness, safety, and water quality”.

The revelation could deal a fatal blow to the credibility of KSB’s “empty and meaningless” beach awards, according to the campaign group, Surfers Against Sewage. Serious flaws in the awards had been exposed, it said.

This was denied, however, by KSB, which insisted that it was simply applying the current legal standards. The quality of the bathing water was only one of the criteria it used to grant awards, it said. 

A new analysis by Sepa has revealed that 20 of Scotland’s official bathing waters would fail new pollution limits due to come into force in 2016. They will replace 36-year-old limits seen by many as out-dated, inadequate and unable to protect against illness.

Five of the beaches rated by Sepa as “poor” – the worst possible rating – were last week crowned by KSB as winners of their “coveted” seaside awards. They were South Beach in Ayr, Millport Bay on the island of Great Cumbrae in North Ayrshire, Seafield at Kirkcaldy in Fife and Stonehaven and Cruden Bay in Aberdeenshire.

A further five beaches categorised by Sepa as just “sufficient” under the new pollution rules – the second-worst rating - also received awards from KSB. They were at Aberdeen, Kinghorn in Fife, Nairn in Moray, and Fraserburgh and Balmedie, in Aberdeenshire.