Ship to ship oil transfer
In my first week in the job I went on a live radio phone on Radio Forth ( http://www.forthone.co.uk/sectional.asp?id=11139 ) in and the first three questions were about ship to ship oil transfer in the Forth! I wondered what I had let myself in for.
I knew we had taken a view on this ( http://www.edinburgh.gov.uk/cpol/Link/index.html ) but couldn’t for the life of me remember what it was. I was on live radio so, to be truthful, I prevaricated and said we had to listen to all sides! Interestingly the three calls were not all against. Two were but one marine engineer was very clear that ship to ship oil transfer was done every day without problems.
I went back and looked at the issues and realized just how important it was that we did protest. This is an issue on which we should take the side of the environment.
What I also discovered was that the advice we had been given legally was that, having expressed our views in the consultation, there was little chance of a legal challenge being successful, which was why we were not joining East Lothian ( http://www.eastlothian.gov.uk/content/ ) and Fife Councils ( http://www.fife.gov.uk/orgs/index.cfm?fuseaction=home&orgid=60304273-A856-11D6-BF4D0002A5349AC9 ) in there journey to court.
Despite that, I and my colleagues have now taken the view that we should be working with the other councils to see if we can build a legal case against Forth Ports ( http://www.forthports.co.uk/ ).
Sometimes, without being too pejorative, we need to see past what is in the end legal speculation and try and do what feels right. Its a risk, but one worth taking.
I knew we had taken a view on this ( http://www.edinburgh.gov.uk/cpol/Link/index.html ) but couldn’t for the life of me remember what it was. I was on live radio so, to be truthful, I prevaricated and said we had to listen to all sides! Interestingly the three calls were not all against. Two were but one marine engineer was very clear that ship to ship oil transfer was done every day without problems.
I went back and looked at the issues and realized just how important it was that we did protest. This is an issue on which we should take the side of the environment.
What I also discovered was that the advice we had been given legally was that, having expressed our views in the consultation, there was little chance of a legal challenge being successful, which was why we were not joining East Lothian ( http://www.eastlothian.gov.uk/content/ ) and Fife Councils ( http://www.fife.gov.uk/orgs/index.cfm?fuseaction=home&orgid=60304273-A856-11D6-BF4D0002A5349AC9 ) in there journey to court.
Despite that, I and my colleagues have now taken the view that we should be working with the other councils to see if we can build a legal case against Forth Ports ( http://www.forthports.co.uk/ ).
Sometimes, without being too pejorative, we need to see past what is in the end legal speculation and try and do what feels right. Its a risk, but one worth taking.
posted by Councillor Ewan Aitken at
12:30 pm
