Rob Edwards

We target your cars and homes, says MoD

from Sunday Herald, 22 June 2008

Vehicles and buildings across large parts of rural Scotland are deliberately used as “practice targets” by low-flying military jets, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) has admitted.

Cars being driven along quiet roads, boats cruising through lochs and people living in countryside homes can all be buzzed by fighter pilots rehearsing for war in Iraq or Afghanistan.

The admission has outraged rural communities, who lambast low-flying as “diabolical” and “dangerous”. And it has prompted a call from the Scottish National Party for the MoD to review its policy on low-flying in Scotland.

PFI: the £50 billion scam

from Sunday Herald, 18 May 2008

Private companies could pocket up to £50 billion in profits from investing in schools, hospitals and other public building projects, an investigation by the Sunday Herald has revealed.

Local authorities, health trusts and other public agencies will end up paying up to twice as much as they need to for the 700 developments planned or built under the UK government’s Private Finance Initiative (PFI).

The revelations, based on tens of thousands of pages released under freedom of information laws, have confirmed critics’ worst fears. PFI has turned out to be “a huge scam”, “a total taxpayer rip-off” and “a cynical accounting fiddle”, they say.

Pollution risk from industrial action

from Sunday Herald, 11 May 2009

Pollution could go undetected, contamination unchecked and toxic waste unscrutinised in the most serious crisis to be faced by Scotland’s official environment watchdog.

Tomorrow, staff at the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) are due to begin an unprecedented campaign of industrial action which could see the environment suffer as incidents occurring outside office hours are not covered.

Concerned about the risks, SEPA’s management has made a last-minute plea for exemptions to the industrial action. This is due to be discussed at a meeting with the trade union, Unison, on Monday morning.

Police accused of persecuting green protesters

from Sunday Herald, 20 April 2008

The police have been accused of a campaign of harassment and intimidation by environmental protesters arrested after peaceful demonstrations in Edinburgh.

Student activists have told the Sunday Herald that they were deprived of food, water and medical attention while being held overnight in police cells last week. Some also said they’ve been woken by dawn raids, or asked to become paid informers.

The protesters have been backed by their parents, who are alarmed that non-violent demonstrators are being treated “like terrorists”. The Green MSP, Robin Harper, has also accused the police of a “gross over-reaction”

Labour minister rejected advice on flawed schools scheme

from Sunday Herald, 20 April 2008

A former Labour minister rejected advice from senior officials to delay a deeply flawed and highly controversial £100 million plan for new schools and homes in Stirling and Dunblane, the Sunday Herald can reveal.

Top secret documents disclose that the deputy communities minister in 2005, Johann Lamont, was strongly urged by government planners to call in the application for consideration by ministers. The plans were lambasted by advisers as “questionable”, “worrying” and “poor”.

Stirling Council, which promoted the development, was also accused of “procedural failings” and of maximising profit at the expense of decent housing. “Stirling Council's judgement in carrying out its statutory duty under the terms of planning legislation has been heavily clouded by its conflict of interests,” warned the official advice to the minister.

CalMac ferries 'could go bust'

from Sunday Herald, 23 March 2008

The public ferry company, Caledonian MacBrayne, could go bust and vital transport links to the islands be lost if the European Commission wins a prolonged legal battle with the Scottish government, officials have warned.

Such a stark scenario, revealed in an internal government database obtained last week by the Sunday Herald, would be “scandalous” and “outrageous”, say experts. Some are even daring the commission to go to court to bring the matter to a head.

Revealed: the oil companies which breached safety rules

from Sunday Herald, 09 March 2008

The oil companies guilty of a series of safety breaches on North Sea rigs have been named and shamed by the government’s health and safety watchdog - but only after a freedom of information request by the Sunday Herald.

In the last three years Shell, Total, BP, Chevron, Maersk and other companies have all faced legal action from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), forcing them to fix flaws in their crucial safety and maintenance systems.

Numerous rules designed to reduce the risk of accidents, fires and explosions to prevent workers from being injured or killed have been broken. Fire doors, valves, and other critical safety equipment have been found to be faulty, and maintenance regimes inadequate.

Plans for 30,000 new houses provoke outrage

from Sunday Herald, 27 January 2008

A Scottish local authority has been accused of trying to bulldoze through plans for more than 30,000 new houses that would worsen pollution, wreck the countryside and damage democracy.

The massive house-building programme being proposed by Fife Council has run into fierce and widespread opposition from government agencies, neighbouring councils, environmental organisations and scores of residents’ groups. In total, more than than 2,500 objections have been lodged.

Public consultations have amounted to “gerrymandering” and population projections have been “seriously misleading”, local residents claim. And the prospect of constructing so many new houses is alleged to have triggered “a feeding frenzy” amongst developers.

RBS under fire for 'propping up' Burmese junta

from Sunday Herald, 28 October 2007

One of Scotland's premier international companies has been accused of "fuelling repression" by propping up the brutal military regime that rules Burma.

Campaigners allege that the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), though its stake in the Bank of China, is collaborating with oil and gas companies run by the Burmese junta. As a result, they claim, RBS is reaping millions of pounds of profit from a regime that abuses human rights and pollutes the planet.

Mystery of 'missing' Shakespeare portrait

from New Scientist, 25 October 2007

It is the kind of argument William Shakespeare himself would have enjoyed. On one side is a claim that a famous portrait of the Bard has gone missing and been replaced by a fake. On the other side, the claim is dismissed as nonsense.

The row is over a painting of Shakespeare known as the Flower portrait. Hildegard Hammerschmidt-Hummel from the University of Mainz, Germany, examined the portrait in 1996 and pronounced it an authentic representation of Shakespeare, painted in 1609.

Forestry Commission accused of 'sabotaging' mountain biking

from Sunday Herald, 09 September 2007

The government's Forestry Commission has come under fierce attack for "sabotaging" the future of mountain biking in Scotland by blocking a major development in the central belt.

The attack, from a leading mountain biking group, comes at an embarrassing time for the Commission, as it is one of the major sponsors of the Mountain Bike World Championships in Fort William this weekend.

The Commission has also been accused of wasting public money, playing "cynical games" and acting like a "secret society". It denies the allegations, however, insisting that it is committed to developing mountain biking "in a sustainable way".

Safety at disaster factory 'neglected' by company and watchdog

from Sunday Herald, 02 September 2007

The disaster at the Stockline plastics factory in Glasgow was caused by years of neglect by the company that ran it and by the government watchdog meant to regulate it, according to a report out today.

Eight experts from four universities have condemned ICL Plastics and the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) for failing to prevent the gas explosion on 11 May 2004, which killed nine workers and injured 40 more.

Conditions in the factory were poor, safety rules were broken and corners were cut to save money, the report alleges. But this is denied by ICL, which accuses the report's authors of using "innuendo" to try to discredit and close down the company.

Bringing corporate killers to account

comment from Sunday Herald, 02 September 2007

When workers escaped from the rubble that had been the ICL plastics factory in Glasgow on 11 May 2004, a fireman noticed that they were not wearing any protective clothing. "Did everybody say 'Oh there's a blast, wait until I take all this safety gear off before I run out'?", he was heard to ask.

The lack of protective equipment is just one of the many allegations about poor health and safety at the factory, mistakenly known as Stockline, made in a report published today. Eight experts from four universities blame bad practice and bad regulation over years for the explosion which killed nine and injured 40 three years ago.

100 Argyll hutters threatened with eviction

from Sunday Herald, 01 July 2007

Up to 100 people living on a remote area of the West coast are being threatened with eviction because they have not got planning permission for their makeshift homes.

The evictions, described as the worst since the Highland Clearances two centuries ago, have provoked widespread anger and distress amongst residents. Unusually, they have won the backing of their local laird, who says people have nowhere else to go.

National Trust for Scotland to slash jobs

from Sunday Herald, 20 May 2007

By Rachelle Money

Major job cuts are planned by the National Trust for Scotland (NTS) in a bid to save £3 million, after recent years have seen the charity hit by financial losses and poor visitor numbers.

In a statement given to the Sunday Herald, NTS officials said they were at the "early stages of a reorganisation and a review of operations" and that the cuts were necessary to ensure a "sustainable future". It added that as staff costs represent half of total costs, then staff numbers would have to be reduced.

The ‘hidden killer’ in the workplace

from Sunday Herald, 29 April 2007

As many as 2,000 people a year in Scotland are being killed in a "forgotten epidemic" of cancers triggered by toxins at work.

New research by experts from Stirling University reveals the disturbing death toll from cancer-causing chemicals, dusts and metals to which hundreds of thousands of workers are exposed.

Job cuts at safety watchdog 'risk lives'

from Sunday Herald, 22 April 2007

The number of people killed or injured at work is set to rise because of job losses and budget cutbacks being imposed by the government's health and safety watchdog.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is planning to shed up to 350 jobs and cut spending by £8 million by March 2008. According to experts and trade unionists, the organisation is facing an "unprecedented crisis" that will result in more accidents - and more deaths.

LibDems put squeeze on Green Party

from Sunday Herald, 01 April 2007

Campaigners for the Liberal Democrats have been privately advised to "squeeze" the Greens to try and prevent them from unseating LibDem politicians.

An internal LibDem election manual obtained by the Sunday Herald brands the Greens as politically "dangerous" because of their ability to win votes from LibDem supporters.

Edinburgh festivals told to clean up or risk losing everything

from Sunday Herald, 18 February 2007

Edinburgh's world-famous festivals, which frequently feature environmental themes, have come under fire for failing to curb the huge amounts of waste and pollution they create.

Some environmentalists are even suggesting that international festivals may have to be abandoned to help save the planet from the disasters threatened by global warming. Major cultural and sporting events are "unsustainable", they argue, because they encourage thousands of people to travel by air.

SNP plan to merge green agencies

from Sunday Herald 18 February 2007

The Scottish National Party is planning a major shake-up of Scotland's green policies by abolishing the government's two main environmental agencies.

If the SNP wins power in May's election, it will propose merging the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) and Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH). Though this will be welcomed by some, it is bound to provoke fierce opposition from others.