Rob Edwards

Anger over over the ‘theft’ of people power

from Sunday Herald, 11 July 2009

It’s an unprecedented power grab, that could affect everyone. And it is angering people across Scotland.

Huge industrial plants and other controversial schemes are being bulldozed through by developers, depriving communities of their rights, polluting their environment and threatening their health. This is because the Scottish government has fast-tracked major developments.

The views of residents have been marginalised, ignored or never sought, and they have had enough. So they are forming action groups, arranging public meetings and taking legal action.

Arguments are currently raging over proposals for a coal-fired power station at Hunterston in North Ayrshire, a waste incinerator at Greengairs in Lanarkshire, huge housing developments in Fife and a school at Portobello in Edinburgh.

And this week a new Scottish-wide group, Planning Democracy, is being launched to campaign for reforms to make the planning system fair. People power has been stolen, campaigners say, and it is “an affront to democracy”.

Fears that terrorists could attack water supplies after 9/11

25 May 2009

The Scottish government was worried about terrorists poisoning drinking water supplies in the aftermath of 9/11, according to secret documents released under freedom of information legislation.

In November 2001 water companies were ordered to speed up work to close gaps in the security of reservoirs. Ventilation systems had to be protected, while tamperproof access hatches, alarms and video surveillance had to be installed.

According to a memo from a senior Scottish government official, the work had to be completed “as soon as physically practicable”. Potential problems were also identified with the disposal of large amounts of water contaminated by a “chemical biological, radiological or nuclear attack”.

Governments bungled £48 million grants for the Highlands

from Sunday Herald, 03 May 2009

Successive governments systematically flouted financial aid rules, wrongly claiming millions of pounds for a series of major telephone, transport and industrial developments in the highlands and islands, according to the European Commission.

Amongst the high-profile projects for which the Scottish government now has to pay back nearly £10 million to Brussels are the Cairngorm mountain railway, the Barmac development at Nigg dock, the Highland mobile phone network and the causeway between the islands of Eriskay and South Uist.

Other big projects for which grants have been embarrassingly bungled include the famed Hunters of Brora Woollen Mill in Sutherland, a Harris Tweed marketing scheme, the Berneray causeway, the A890 improvement near Achnasheen, the Kyle of Lochalsh sewage works and a cycleway between Forres and Kinloss.

Scientists warned about risks of swine flu years ago

from Sunday Herald, 03 May 2009

National and international agencies were warned four years ago that cramming millions of pigs into massive industrial farms could trigger a global pandemic of swine flu.

Expert scientists from the Centre for Emerging Infectious Diseases at the University of Iowa, at the heart of US pig-farming country, said in 2005 that intensive hog farms were a “tremendous potential reservoir” for flu viruses.

Viruses could easily spread to swine workers, mutate and end up as new strains “of pandemic potential”, they said. “The potential for a virulent, highly communicable, novel virus to move from swine to man seems to be great.”

In the last few weeks that seems to be exactly what has happened. Although the source of the swine flu that is sweeping the globe hasn’t been confirmed, most suspicions point to the huge pork farms near La Gloria, east of Mexico City, which produce nearly a million pigs a year.

Economic growth is a ‘horrible distortion’, say government advisers

from Sunday Herald, 29 March 2009

The economic system is broken, and attempts by governments to fix it by kick-starting growth and consumerism are “delusional” and “pathological”, ministers will be warned this week.

A ground-breaking new report by the leading environmental advisers to First Minister Alex Salmond and Prime Minister Gordon Brown will deliver a damning verdict on capitalism - and demand a radical shift to a fairer, more sustainable society.

The report has been compiled by the Sustainable Development Commission (SDC), a group of 19 experts chaired by Jonathon Porritt which directly advises Salmond and Brown on environmental issues. Entitled ‘Prosperity without Growth?’, it is due to be published tomorrow.

The relentless and unquestioned pursuit of economic growth, founded on the ever-increasing consumption of material goods, has failed to bring social justice, prosperity or happiness, the report says. And it has trashed the planet in the process.

One in four drinking water coolers contaminated

from Sunday Herald, 01 March 2009

Ministers are being urged to tightened up safety rules for office water coolers after a survey revealed that as many as one in four were contaminated.

Tests for the watchdog organisation, Consumer Focus Scotland, found potentially dangerous bacteria in drinking water dispensers used at workplaces, schools and care homes.

The dispensers need to be better cleaned and maintained, the group says. The Scottish government, along with the Food Standards Agency, should also review existing legislation because it is difficult to enforce.

Environmental health officers discovered bacterial contamination in 23 out of 87 water dispensers sampled in Edinburgh, Lothian and Borders. They tested for five types of bacteria known to cause illness, particularly in people who are vulnerable due to frailty or ill health.

Experts excluded from Stockline inquiry

from Sunday Herald, 22 February 2009

The inquiry into the Stockline disaster in Glasgow will fail to learn vital lessons because it has been restricted to the immediate cause of the gas explosion, experts are warning.

The inquiry’s chair, Lord Gill, barred academics who authored a report on the wider causes of the accident from appearing as witnesses because he regarded their evidence as outwith the inquiry’s remit.

The experts from Stirling, Strathclyde and Liverpool universities had concerns about the entire regulatory regime governing the ICL Plastics factory, which was flatten by an explosion on 11 May 2004, killing nine workers and injuring 33 more.

In a report published in September 2007, the experts argued that the root causes of the accident lay in the factory’s long record of breaching safety rules and cutting corners to save money. They also attacked the government’s Health and Safety Executive for failing to crack down on the breaches.

Dead mackerel dumps damage fishing

from Sunday Herald, 22 February 2009

Large amounts of dead mackerel have been dumped in the sea off north west Scotland, contaminating fish catches and damaging sales.

Fishermen from Kinlochbervie in Sutherland are complaining that their recent catches of cod, haddock and monkfish stink of rotting mackerel and so can’t be sold.

The Scottish pelagic fleet denies it is responsible for dumping the fish, and an investigation has been launched by the Scottish government and the Scottish Fisheries Protection Agency.

Some reports from fishermen suggest that vast areas of the seabed north west of the Butt of Lewis have been covered with thousands of tonnes of dumped mackerel since the beginning of the year.

Mould-breaking wood business breaks up in acrimony

from Sunday Herald, 11 January 2009

A pioneering Scottish woodwork project famed for its environmentally friendly furniture has been broken up, prompting bitter recriminations, redundancies and regrets.

Borders Woodschool, at Ancrum near Jedburgh, has been restructured and its co-founder and manager, Eoin Cox, sacked, along with six other staff. The associated retail gallery, BuyDesign at the nearby Harestanes visitor centre, has also been shut down.

For Cox, the break-up is a deeply upsetting betrayal of everything that Woodschool stood for. But for its owners, Borders Forestry Trust, the changes are vital to ensure its financial survival.

Renewable power deals condemned as ‘greenwash’

from Sunday Herald, 21 December 2008

Hundreds of thousands of consumers are being misled by the green tariffs offered by power companies to boost renewable energy, says a report due out this week.

The tariffs do virtually nothing to promote new renewable supplies and can be costly and confusing, according to the Carbon Accountability Programme, set up by environmentalists in Edinburgh.

It accuses the six leading power companies of adopting “greenwash” to try and make their products more attractive. But this is denied by the companies, who all claim to be investing heavily in renewable energy sources.

Revealed: the military’s £28m in Scottish universities

from Sunday Herald, 19 October 2008

Scottish universities have received at least £28 million in research funding from international arms companies, nuclear bomb manufacturers and government defence agencies.

An investigation has revealed that five leading universities - Strathclyde, Edinburgh, St Andrews, Glasgow and Heriot-Watt - have all taken multi-million pound handouts from BAE Systems, Rolls Royce, the Atomic Weapons Establishment and other defence firms for military research.

The revelation has prompted accusations that academic research has been “polluted” by an unethical killing industry. But this was denied by the universities, who pointed out that the research was not directly related to weapons, and could have socially useful spin-offs.

The investigation was carried out by the former socialist MSP, Tommy Sheridan, as part of his social research degree at Strathclyde University. Using freedom of information legislation, he requested details of military research projects from ten universities since 2000.

Acrimony as mountain bike plan bites the dust

from Sunday Herald, 05 October 2008

Ambitious plans for a major mountain biking development in the central belt have collapsed, leaving a trail of rescinded grants, mass resignations and bitter recriminations.

The Forestry Commission has been blamed for wrecking a £1.5 million plan to expand bike paths at its Carron Valley Forest, near Stirling. The government body’s behaviour has been manipulative and “disgraceful”, according to local politicians.

The Carron Valley Development Group, a voluntary organisation set up five years ago to promote mountain biking in the area, has given up and decided to disband. It has handed back a £35,000 grant, withdrawn from the development partnership and accused the commission of “fighting dirty”.

Charges against eco-activists dropped

from Sunday Herald, 28 September 2008

Criminal charges against 11 environmental activists involved in three demonstrations in Edinburgh have been abandoned in the wake of a recent jury decision to acquit anti-pollution protesters in England.

The activists said that their protests at the Scottish Parliament, Edinburgh airport and a BP garage had been vindicated. The police and public prosecutors could no longer “criminalise” people who are trying to protect the planet, they claimed.

The decisions to drop charges were also welcomed by the Scottish Green Party as a victory for the “freedom to protest”. The Crown Office, however, maintained that the cases had been “discontinued” for varying reasons.

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.