Hans J Marter

10 January 2007

A SHETLAND residents group was celebrating last night (Tuesday) after claiming victory in their fight against a proposed fishmeal plant at Sella Ness, near the Sullom Voe Terminal.

The Graven Resident Group said yesterday that a proposed £5.5 million extension to the Sella Ness Pier would no longer be included in the Shetland Islands Council’s capital spending budget.

Extending the pier by 90 metres is seen as a pre-condition for the Icelandic company Sildarvinnslan (SVN) to build a £10 million fishmeal factory at Sella Ness, producing around 100,000 tonnes of fishmeal a year.

In a recent capital projects priority list the pier extension came 48th out of 50 projects listed.

Now a report before the council’s harbour board tomorrow (Thursday) describes the project as “not expected to be included in the 07/08 budgets due to its position on the prioritisation list”.

Spokesman for the resident group, Alex Miller, claimed the statement meant victory for the campaign.

He said: “The scrapping of the project from SIC budgets combined with the still unresolved community objection to the granting of a works licence and the ongoing question mark over a potential EC State-Aid enquiry means that these developments cannot proceed within the foreseeable future, indeed if ever.”

“Our small community is pleased to have achieved this outcome against all the odds and we would wish to thank everyone who has supported us during the past year.”

But the general manager of the council’s ports and harbours department said yesterday the project was on the “backburner” due to financial constrains, but it was not off the agenda.

He said: “It is not put off; it is a case of when it will be built, not if it will be built.

“There is no doubt that the council has not as much money as it had years ago for capital expenditure. Therefore they have drawn up a priority list. It is not a case that this project is cancelled, it takes a lower priority at the moment.”

Mr Miller said last night the group was nevertheless confident that the pier would never be built.