30 December, 2005

THE ICELANDIC fishmeal producer Sildarvinnslan (SVN) is moving ahead with its plans to build a £10 million factory at Sella Ness, in Shetland.

The company lodged a planning application with Shetland Islands Council (SIC) just before Christmas.

Simultaneously, the SIC Capital Programme Service has put in its application to construct a £5.8 million extension to the existing pier at Sella Ness.

SVN is seeking permission to "erect fishmeal factory, construct seawater intake, waste water outfall and pumping station, demolish accommodation buildings, erect replacement storage building and crew accommodation building" at the Sella Ness Industrial Site.

The plans by the Icelandic producers were greeted with scepticism during a public meeting in November during which the developers were grilled by local residents and industry insiders over the viability of their plans.

SVN hopes to be able to process around 100,000 tonnes of blue whiting at the plant. The reason for relocating to Shetland was the islands' proximity to the fishing grounds, they said.

However residents at nearby Graven fear the over-industrialisation of the area around the Sullom Voe Terminal and remain unconvinced about assurances that smell from the fishmeal factory will not be a problem.

They also argue that blue whiting processing in Shetland could well be an unviable business, a concern that is further fuelled by news that the Norwegian company Welcon is planning to build an even larger factory at Killibegs, in Ireland.

Meanwhile, managers at Shetland Fish Products, the islands' other fish meal plant, argue the council is assisting SVN with a new pier which, in their eyes, amounts to unfair competition.