Last night
Well, the supporting view was approved, and it has now gone to the Scottish Executive to take a final decision on the application.
Obviously, I hope for an an approval as soon as possible, but irrespective of the outcome I hope that all sides in this debate will pull together in the future and work together for the best interests of the islands.
If it is a refusal, then I will be happy to work on any other scheme to regenerate the islands and to secure employment for coming generations.
If they'll want my support :-)
I had a call from Alasdair Morrison mid-afternoon to get a feel for how the debate was going to go, and to hear from me what the main objections were, and what could be done to mitigate or remove these concerns. It was good to find a politician seeking information from those in the front line, so as to better understand the issues before coming to a conclusion.
Strange as this may seem - and despite our history of disagreements - over the past 18 months our Labour MSP has had more contact with me about this issue than every other politician and candidate put together.
Obviously, I hope for an an approval as soon as possible, but irrespective of the outcome I hope that all sides in this debate will pull together in the future and work together for the best interests of the islands.
If it is a refusal, then I will be happy to work on any other scheme to regenerate the islands and to secure employment for coming generations.
If they'll want my support :-)
I had a call from Alasdair Morrison mid-afternoon to get a feel for how the debate was going to go, and to hear from me what the main objections were, and what could be done to mitigate or remove these concerns. It was good to find a politician seeking information from those in the front line, so as to better understand the issues before coming to a conclusion.
Strange as this may seem - and despite our history of disagreements - over the past 18 months our Labour MSP has had more contact with me about this issue than every other politician and candidate put together.
9 comments:
The cost of a tunnel should NOT be prohibitive. And if the Norwegians were allowed to build it, it wouldn't be ... see:
http://www.silversprite.com/?p=238
...for various links to relevant tunnel information.
Shame on you Angus for supporting the sale of the Islands, their heritage and their landscape to Amec for a marginal financial gain that will in no way compensate for the impact on the tourist industry.
Hope you can sleep well at night
Shame on you for posting anonymously.
Presumably you want Councillors who don't think for themselves, rather than those who analyse the issues?
The tourism figures are grossly overblown, as the RSPB 'report' proved. Care to discuss that?
That's a tad unfair, Angus. You ARE offering three options for leaving comments, one of which is Anonymous - so you can't fairly criticise people for using it.
John
Fair point.
I met a gentleman from Swainbost last night who totally opposes the application, but just wanted to say that he knew how difficult it must be to make any sort of decision. We parted amicably. That's the kind of abuse I like!
Are you saying that you've had 1 call from Almo and none from the SNP MP or candidate in the past 18 months?
Good interpretation BB. Go on Angus, but us out of our mysery and tell us.
BB: a bit of an exaggeration on my part. It's probably about 15 months.
And I point to Saturday's editorial...
Western Isles councillors, praised and pilloried equally for backing plans for one of Europe's largest onshore windfarms on Lewis, have now made just such a call.
Time will reveal the true impact of their 18-8 decision in favour of the plan, but they were right to base their verdict on fact, not fiction. Doing what is right and doing what is popular do not always make happy bedfellows, but the council's reluctance to take an easier option of fudging the hard decision is welcome. It has now laid down a clear vision for the economic future of its domain. The alternative of time-consuming cut, thrust and parry was not an option.
As Jeremy Paxman once said, no one has yet worked out how to generate electricity by hand-wringing.
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