Lighthouse Caledonia
You could see the probable closure of Marybank coming from the moment that the company was formed, with the bad news being passed from Fjord Seafoods to the new owners.Sad, sad, news, but the costs of transporting goods to the mainland is one that has been repeatedly flagged by the company, the hauliers, the Comhairle and many others over the past years. The delayed pseudo-RET scheme is too little and way too late, and without certainly over the costs for many years the businesses are not going to make the long-term investments.
With double the capacity and half the staff, the factory at Cairndow must be the expected winner in this case.
Cairndow lies in the constituency of Enterprise Minister, Jim Mather, who is already facing job losses at Machrahanish, so telephone calls to him are going to be less productive than you might think.
16 comments:
LazyChicken.
You know nothing. Dont comment on things until you have done your research. Not once, did anyone mention haulage costs today. Not once. The fact remains re haulage that fish from the Western Isles processed here, is cheaper to get to Glasgow than than fish to the mainland for processing there. That is because value added production which LHC were/are producing here is 65% of the weight in average of whole fish.
The company is showing a desire to continue processing in the Western Isles if possible. The genuine reason for the closure is the inefficient and deteriorating factory. Try getting Marks and Spencers to visit it for an audit and see what they think of the place and if they will take a product produced in such an environ.
Your pathetic attempt to implement the SNP in this is just another sad sad post from another sad sad blogger with an agenda who uses even job losses, serious job losses, in the Western Isles to try and justify himself.
You should be ashamed of yourself on such a bad day for the islands.
NKM
It's not very obvious that you have quite a lot personally at stake here, otherwise you may not be quite so obtuse.
I think you may need to take your SNP head out of the very dark place that it is and realise that the only way Scotland including the Western Isles has gone over the last couple of weeks is down, down, down.
And where are our worthy politicians????????
The list of ten things that Mssrs MacNeil and Allan have done for the Islands is filling up fast:
Loss of jobs for the weavers
Loss of jobs in at Lighthouse Caledonia
Strikes by the Comhairle closing our schools
Closure of our rural schools
Strike action in the court service
Loss of HBOS as a true Scottish brand
Support of "spivs and speculators" by our first minister
Fuel prices rocketing
Income tax about to rise by 3% to all PAYE earners
No wind factory, no future for the islands but Jim Mather's alright Jack
That's ten things, didn't take long and I'm sure I could think of ten more but then you are obviously so worried about your own job that you don't give a toss about anyone else.
A bad day for the Islands, a bad 2 years for the islands. Where are our politicians??
Hello Bunter aka Nat!
Husband of the MP's/MSP's secretary;
well known attack hamster;
frequent pro-SNP poster on Angus blog;
employee of LHC; and,
serial complainer to Isles FM about anti-SNP comments.
Let's see what your mates can do for you and the community now.
Your support for a sub-standard (unhygienic?) facility is almost disengenuous, except I think it might be stupidity. Or rotten fish instead of brains.
Anon 7:45 and Nat King is Dead
I dont know exactly what you have done here except to re-iterate my point of agendas. If you have nothing either factual or constructive to add to the debate then I think you should maybe take your cheap pointscoring to Lazy Chicken and have a good laugh at them together. Meanwhile literally hundreds of families in the Western Isles are dreading Christmas and New Year.......
This blog has allowed hatred of the SNP (and its parliamentarians) to bring it down to same gutter level of the WHFP.
If you cannot blog (or write your paper) without letting you bias vent out then it will be left unread.
Many people are noticing. Maybe its time you got scales!
Bunter is Nat King?!?
Reread his other posts, as I have just done, and look at the scandalous nonsense he writes while trying to pretned to be a genuine member of the public.
Obviously orders from SNP HQ in Bayhead i.e. Mrs Bunter, have to be obeyed.
I really feel for the workers of LHC and also the haulage companies who will also have to shed jobs. It is a sad day for them and for the next few months with their jobs being threatened.
As a Labour supporter I feel our MP and MSP have done nothing for us since elected. "especially our MP" I remember the day of the 2005 election when the Scalpay factory closed and he was shouting all he was going to do to get it re-opened. Well 3 years on it is still closed and what has he done about it. Maybe that LHC can move there if as Nat King McCool says the reason being the inefficient and deteriorating factory as it was a top of the range factory 3 years ago. I would like to know how much HIE has ploughed in to that factory over the years, and how much did the current and previous owners plough in to it.
LHC are just like all the other companies who come here once the grants stop away they go.
Libra - yet another pathetic SNP supporter complaining about the unfairness of the blog.
You are all happy enough to agree with the anti-Labour posts, but believe that the SNP should be immune from criticism.
I think you will find that ALL incumbents are targetted - Alasdair Morrison got a serious kicking until 2007
Considering that Polish, Romanian,Ukranian and other nationalities make up most of the workforce I do not see what the problem is ?.
7.42
This paricular blog entry is very anti SNP referring to the RET pilot as if it has been the cause of the downfall of LHC because it was not introduced the day after the election. By all means give the SNP (or Labour or Tories)a kicking when it is deserved and if you do it properly you will earn respect. If you carry on like this you are no better the shit on your shoes!
9.05
Does it matter where the workforce came from. I doubt they were commuting from their homelands. If they live here they are contributing to the local economy. If they lose their jobs they will probably move away taking with them the need to buy food to feed their families.
In response to the comedian with the 'ten things done for the islands' list lets not forget the positives
The tide continues to in and out even in Bayble
The Summer was the best for many years
The price of lambs was up
Tesco arrived
Celtic won the league
Rangers reached a European Final
The best Olympics ever took place
Cromwell St narrows resurfaced
Arnish did not fold
The stag population is on the up
Manson and Currie were sacked
I think the whole tone of the debate here and elsewhere in the local media is just indicative of all that is wrong in Western Isles politics at the moment and all that is holding us back as a community.
"Big bad company took our grants" "Big bad Norwegians". "Big bad company only employs foreigners" "Big bad company didn’t discuss things with the council".
Unlike the original post from a very Lazy Chicken who has subsequently pulled his anonymous feathered friends out to cover the fact he was caught talking chicken shit, I’ll try and stick to the issues and give you something resembling facts.
Lighthouse Caledonia perceives itself as a Scottish Salmon company. The larger share of its employees are in the Western Isles not on the mainland. It did not buy the factory. It did not build it. The company was set off on its own by Marine Harvest to the EEC forcing them to downsize. All this is common knowledge and in the public domain. As far as I know the company has not had any grants or funding from local or national agencies since it was founded last year. Its predecessors may have, lets say for the sake of arguement £5m. Prob around 1990-1995 when the factory was built and developed by a Belgian company. A quick look at the annual accounts of Fjord Seafood shows their average salaries ranged between £1m to £1.5m per annum. It doesnt take the brain of Britain to work out its contribution to the islands over the last say 15 years then. Never mind what it means to Macaskills, Polybox among the rest. This is the biggest disaster for this us since water overcame the minch. But hey! Lets just play the blame game.
As to my identity, I openly support the SNP incase you didn’t read that in the name. I could be the wee guy next door. I could be one of the 130 or so who work for LHC. I could work for macaskills, polybox, CNES or any of the development agencies. I could be Hong Hong Phooeey. Im sure he has the same ISP address as me. Maybe he even works for LHC as the janitor. I couldn’t really give a flier.
What is important here was presenting the facts in among all the fiction and pettymindedness on display since the news first broke out. Maybe some of you actually can console yourselves with the fact that you may or may not have scored a couple of direct hits at the Scottish Government and its representatives on an pretty obscure blog whilst talking a pack of lies. That is small consolation for those hundreds of people employed by the company and those who benefit economically from its existence now facing a long drawn out period of uncertainty and a bleak Christmas and New Year.
Mad Ruadhach. "I feel sorry for the workers..." Thank God. Somebody does! Your post is the only place I have heard those words since Tuesday.
Long live the King!
Anon 6:57 AM
So big hand for our MP and MSP for this.
Why don't you ask the weavers and LHC staff what they think of the nonsense you wrote. This is peoples livelihoods we are talking about not stupid things like tide coming in and out
The best Olympics ever took place
Cromwell St narrows resurfaced
The stag population is on the up
Manson and Currie were sacked.
You must be one selfish bastard who is in a secure job, who does not give a toss if anyone else has a job or not.
So NKM
What has Mssrs MacNeil and / or Allan done about LHC closing??? or any of the other problems facing the Islands for that matter? I would have thought that they would have campaigned vehemently for saving LHC, particularly as one of their brood was so connected. Still I have heard that they might not necessarily have their fingers on the pulse when it comes to local matters, but that's for another day.
Note to self - Never, ever, ever, reply all on an e-mail unless you have something really stimulating to say....
You SNP lot always have someone else to blame.
I would love to ask the common man. Since Alex Salmond came to power in Scotland in May 2006 do you feel better off?
Hmmmmmm, doesn't take a lot of thinking time to find an answer does it?
Still I'm sure it's someone elses fault.
Just think, one of the positives is that you will have more time to write your tripe on this blog.
The public purse has already funded the building of the fish processing factory at Scalpay for Stolt Seafarms. I cannot think of a better use for it now than processing salmon once more and preserving the LHC jobs on the islands and hence allowing this embryonic firm to operate on a more level playing field with its larger competitors.
Why the devil did Marine Harvest hang on to this site at the time of the carve up, other than to obstruct the firm that was being created from the ashes of their least productive facilities.
They say that the despite its tender years, the Scalpay factory is in a shameful condition and the current tennants are doing damn all to rectify that. Maybe it is time that the landlords or factors did a snap inspection on behalf of the British Tax Payer and if they are in breach of their lease conditions, then boot them out and breath some life back into the place, before it crumbles and is swallowed up by the Sound.
10.01 We have a person on the Island who is not a member of the public?? what is he... Royalty?!
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