Monthly Archives: February 2009

Argyll’s MSP and Energy Minister, Jim Mather, responds to concerns over Kintyre grid upgrade

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Jim Mather MSPAs For Argyll recently reported, Councillor Dick Walsh, Leader of Argyll and Bute Council, has written to the First Minister, Alex Salmond expressing anxiety about the exclusion of Argyll from the planned upgrade to the National Grid.

The National Planning Framework for Scotland (NPF2) is currently before the Scottish Parliament and is due to be debated on 5th March 2009. It sets out details of future plans for electricity grid reinforcements, including sub-sea cables. Councillor Walsh points out that, in spite of previous representations from Argyll and Bute Council, the crucial Hunterston to Carradale cable has not been included in the plan, while cables for Shetland, Orkney and the Western Isles are planned.

For Argyll contacted Mr Mather on the matter and the Minister has now sent this information for publication: ‘The issue of Grid connection has been getting the focus that the people of Argyll & Bute and the rest of Scotland would expect. This Scottish Government has always believed that subsea transmission options must be considered if we are to fully capitalise on our abundant renewable energy potential on the West Coast. We are therefore involved in a subsea grid study, in partnership with the administrations of Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.

‘In 2007, the Scottish Government, along with the Department of Trade and Industry (Northern Ireland) and the Department of Communications, Marine and Natural Resources (Republic of Ireland), with full funding support from the EU Interreg IV programme, commissioned a pre-scoping grid study.

‘The aim of this study was to identify the requirements of a full feasibility study for capitalising on the natural resources of the west coast of Scotland, the north and east coasts of Northern Ireland, the Irish Sea and the west coast of the Republic of Ireland, to generate energy from offshore renewables.

‘The report outlines what would be required for a full feasibility study into the development of an offshore grid in the region. The Scottish Government hosted an industry workshop to discuss the findings of the pre-scoping study on 8th April 2008 and has applied for EU Interreg funding, along with our Irish partners, towards the cost of a full feasibility study.

‘This detailed study will explore the technological, economic, construction and regulatory challenges associated with the development of such an offshore transmission network.

‘The aim of this work is to help make the business case for long term commercial investment.

‘Meantime, Scottish Ministers are aware of concerns about grid connection to Hunterston and have asked officials to meet with Argyle and Bute Council to help develop their renewable ambitions, in the context of our national ambitions – and to strategically address barriers to achievement.

‘The Proposed National Planning Framework 2 (NPF2) is currently being considered by Parliament.  A report of the parliamentary consideration, with any recommendations for changes, is anticipated to be made available to Scottish Ministers on or after 6th March (the end of the consideration period).  We will consider that report in making any final changes to NPF 2.

‘Any concerns over the omission of a subsea cable from Hunterston to Carradale in the Proposed National Planning Framework (NPF) 2 should be made known to the Convenor of the Local Government and Communities Committee (the lead committee) as soon as possible in order that the committee is aware of the issue in finalising its report’.

This last is obviously an action for Argyll and Bute Council to take as a matter of urgency. The meeting promised here by the Minister between officials and the Council to pursue Argyll’s needs for the Hunterston – Carradale cable is another crucial opportunity.

In the field of renewable energy development – so critical for Scotland’s non-nuclear energy delivery strategy – Scotland needs Argyll as much as Argyll needs this grid upgrade. Argyll has very real and necessary resources across a wide spectrum of potential renewable energy sources. Having said that, it is important for the Council, as its Leader is doing, to keep Argyll in the forefront of the Scottish Government’s consciousness, automatically associated with renewable energy delivery.

Footnote: Underlining Scotland’s status in the field, the British-Irish Council meeting on Friday (20th February) gave the Scottish Government the lead role in developing renewable energy technology while the UK Government looks at proposals to renew the grid infrastructure.

More signs of trouble at Johnston Press, owners of The Buteman

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Johnston Press, owner of The Buteman and currently dealing with straightened financial circumstances by organising an asset sale of some of its Irish titles, has another disruption on its hands. It has just seen Mike Gibson, editor of its Scottish flagship title, The Scotsman, resign with immedate effect. It is understood that he has already gone back to Portsmouth where his family still stay.

He follows Les Snowden, Editor of another of the Group’s Scottish titles, Scotland on Sunday, who is moving to become Sports Editor at the Daily Mail.

Johnston Press bought The Scotsman from the Barclay Brothers wo years ago, paying £161million for it. In the company’s current circumstances it has been rumoured that it might not keep The Scotsman but its plans now seem to be focused on cost-cutting.

Mr Gibson has been its editor since 2006. His resignation arrives in the context of a a restructuring of the editorial team and processes. This may involve estabishing a single team to design and sub-edit all of the Johnston Press’s Edinburgh-based titles – which include the Edinburgh Evening News and Scotland on Sunday. The Scottish division of the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) has said that these plans will involve no more than a few redundancies, all of which will be voluntary.

Mr Gibson seems to have been unhappy with the current restructuring plans, which include the possible appointment of a single Editor-in-Chief. The inside track for this post is thought to be held by John McLellan, who edits the Edinburgh Evening News. The departure of the editors of the two other major Edinburgh-based titles leaves that situation clear.

John McLellan has now been appointed to edit The Scotsman, the paper’s 10th editor in 15 years. An announcement is expected on Tuesday about the future of the three titles and this is expected to to focus on a merged editorial team to produce them.

Crown Estate has 20:20 vision and is in survival mode

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The Crown Estate owns the seabed around the British Isles, including Scotland, out to the 12 mile limit. It has been selling valuable leases on parts of this marine estate in areas of obviously rich potential for marine energy development.

The Crown Estate’s main focus has been, as is that of the Scottish Government, on the powerful Pentland Firth which First Minister Alex Salmond famously described as ‘the Saudi Arabia of renewable energy’. However the Crown Estate is also selling leases for sites with potential as offshore wind farms.

This week it was announced that it was offering exclusivity agreements for the exploration of ten sites in Scotland as potential offshore wind farms. As For Argyll reported, three of these sites are in Argyll: off the west coast of Kintyre close to Machrihanish; to the southwest of Islay; and to the southwest of Tiree. The Tiree site, the biggest of the three, is capable of producing 1.5MW, enough power for up to a million homes.

The  Crown Estate has just announced that it will match-fund the option fees it charges to developers. These option fees cover the period while developers scope the scale of the potential commercial energy development of a site, prepare environmental impact assessments, apply for planning consent and get their financing in place.

The fees charged – which are being set on a sliding scale proportionate to the investment required on each site and with payment spread over two years – and the money from their matching by the Crown Estate, will be invested to accelerate development.

These option fees, while not trivial, are nothing like the scale of fees that will be charged for leasing sites that prove commercially viable. There is no mention of any match funding on this future Crown Estate revenue or even of sharing it with, in this case, Scotland.

So before you think ‘altruism’, think 20:20 vision and strategic survivalism. The Crown Estate is buying time and buying it with a seemingly grand gesture that will cost it relatively little.

It will not be long before the general public becomes aware of what could be effectively presented  as a second stealing of revenue from Scotland’s energy wealth. When that happens, the Crown Estate’s blanket historical ownership, born of feudal times, will come under serious scrutiny. So will its management of that estate. A plethora of small matters such as its dispute with the Rothesay Bay Moorings group will cast its stance as grasping in small as well as in large.

The game is a good spectator sport but let’s be clear about what the game is about. It’s not about a generous and forward-looking contribution to developing Scotland’s power. It’s about hanging on to ancient, unearned and profitable rights.

Maf Smith from Holy Loch Sailing Club wins Flying Fifteen World Championships in Australia

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Holy Loch Sailing Club is all of a buzz. Club member Maf Smith and his helmsman Andy McKee from Dovestone Sailing Club have recently won the Classic Division of the Flying Fifteen World Championships in Australia. This comes a week after they won the Classic Division of the Australian National Championships. The club is delighetd that the commitment Maf and Andy have made to their racing in taking their fifteen down under to compete has paid off so handsomely. And not only is this great for the Holy Loch Sailing Club – it’s great news for all of Argyll.

Ron of Argyll

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Ron of Argyll 1Part of the notion of Homecoming is the repatriation of information – recovering connections as well as building new ones.

Here is just such an initiative. For Argyll has tracked down a classic yacht, built by Alexander Robertson & Sons, Yachtbuilders of Sandbank at the Holy Loch north of Dunoon. Sandbank was later the site of the US Navy’s Polaris Submarine Base in Scotland.

The yacht is the Ron, a 50′ gaff-rigged ketch designed by the Scottish naval architect J A McCallum Continue reading →

Alexander Robertson & Sons, America’s Cup Yachtbuilders at Sandbank on the Holy Loch near Dunoon

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Alexander Robertson & SonsA big player in Argyll’s nautical history was the boatbuilding business at Sandbank on the Holy Loch north of Dunoon which was run by Alexander Robertson and his sons.

Robertson’s parents (his father was a fisherman from the Isle of Skye) moved from Inverkip, where he was born, to Sandbank to take over the Post Office there. Young Alexander was apprenticed as a boatbuilder in Dunoon then in Govan.

In 1876, when he was 25, he began building small wooden boats at his Sandbank workshop, in partnership with Daniel Kerr. Two years later that partnership broke up but Robertson went on to expand the business in bigger premises. He was still Chairman of the company in 1935, two years before he died.

He started by designing himself but later employed many of the leading designers of the day to work on, for example, the 12 metre and 15 metre racing yachts which made the firm its name. The business was obviously a major employer in the area – particularly in its heyday in the early 1900s.

Naturally he was a multi-tasking bigwig in Cowal and in Argyll – representing Cowal on Argyll County Council; being a Parish Councillor; appointed as a Justice of the Peace; being a member of the local School Board; acting as director of Dunoon District Cottage Hospital and being on the Board of Management of the Parish Church.

The company built the first 15 metre racing yacht – the Shimna, in 1907, designed by the famous William Fife.

It built over 55 boats in Britain’s preparations for the First World War. It managed to stay in business during the Great Depression of the mid-1930s as rich businessmen went in for a bout of highly conspicuous consumption by building and racing yachts on the Clyde. (Yacht racing is fairly, if modestly, described as ‘standing in a shower tearing up £100 notes.).

Alexander RobertsonBetween the wars, as well as racing yachts for the depressions-proof, the company built lifeboats. It got its first RNLI lifeboat order in 1935. This was for the Charlotte Elizabeth, the first motor-powered lifeboat launched in Scotland, later stationed at Port Askaig, in Argyll’s Isle of Islay. Robertson’s built and maintained ten more lifeboats and also built a series of tenders to service larger boats being built further up the Clyde.

It was during this period that Robertson’s built the Ron, later renamed Ron of Argyll on which For Argyll has published a companion article to this one. Ron was – and is – a 15 metre ketch designed by J A McCallum in 1928. She was followed by Southern Cross – an interesting coincidence, given where Ron of Argyll is currently sailing. Southern Cross was a 16 metre ketch designed by Alfred Mylne in 1930

In the Second World War the yard built a range of the large and fast Fairmile Marine Motor Boats for the Admiralty. These included Motor Torpedo Boats (MTBs) and Motor Gun Boats (MGBs), both renamed after the war as ‘fast patrol boats’.

After this war, the company had success in building the one-class Loch Long boats – 6.4metre, 2-man keelboats. Cove Sailing Club on the shores of Loch Long on the Rosneath peninsula describes itself as ‘the home of the Loch Long one-design’. Interestingly, there is a fleet of these still racing in Aldeburgh in Suffolk and there is a class association website, run by Cove Sailing Club, for more information.

As well as this class of boat, Robertson’s were selected to build two of Britain’s 12 metre challengers for the America’s Cup: Sceptre in 1958 and Sovereign in 1964, both designed by David Boyd. Neither won. Sceptre lost to Columbia and Sovereign lost to Constellation.

Business began to slow markedly after this time and the yard spent its time building fast launches for the RAF. They also took on fixed price contracts for two 63′ General Service Mk 1 Pinnaces. These contracts were effectively the end of Robertson’s. Delays, design changes and rising materials costs saw the business in the sort of financial difficulties described as being ‘between a rock and a hard place’.

The Robertson Family sold the yard in 1965.

The footnote is that it became a subsidiary of Glasgow’s Auchinleck Investment Company who built there a wide range of fibreglass (GRP) boats there – like Pipers, Ohlsons, Etchells and Pilot Launches – for 14 more years. They shut down in 1980, faced with rising costs of oil and resin – and tough competition from established GRP yards down south.

The buildings in the lower yard were pulled down in the late 1980s and the site was levelled for re-development. Now all that’s left is the slipway, although some of the classic boats built at the yard – like Ron of Argyll now in the Whitsundays – are still sailing in a wide variety of waters.

The photographs show Alexander Robertson (bearded) with his sons at the Sandbank yard and Alexander Robertson himself. Both are reproduced here under the Creative Commons licence.

Brewin Dolphin Yacht Racing Series, Tarbert

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The 2009 Brewin Dolphin Yacht Racing Series out of Tarbert on Loch Fyne will run this year from 22nd – 25th May. It has previulsy been known as the Bell Lawrie series and the sponsor remaoins the same – although with a name change. Brewin Dolphin, the parent company, has decided that from March 2009 its Scottish division, Bell Lawrie, will assume the group name. So the Brewin Dolphin Series in May is likely to be the first major PR event with Bell Lawrie in new livery. An entry form for the series can be downloaded from the website of the Clyde Cruising Club.

Innovative Oban Fair Trade Fortnight

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Oban’s Fair Trade Fortnight 2009 runs from 23rd February to 8th March. The event has a series of innovations. The Oban Fair Trade Group is:

  • holding the town’s first fair trade fashion show
  • playing host to Malawian fair trade expert Towera Jalakasi
  • and also inviting  Scottish Fair Trade Forum Coordinator, Betsy Reed

We’ve got so used to hearing the term ‘fair trade’ it’s useful to have a look at just what it represents. At heart it represents the acknowledgment of the interconnectedness of things – and of people. The famous expression of this is that: ‘the flap of a butterfly’s wings in Brazil sets off a tornado in Texas’.

This creates an awareness of the consequences of one’s own actions and a sense of broad responsibility. Fair trade is one way of taking action ourselves.  It is about creating a world where everyone is paid a fair price for the work they do.

Towera Jalakasi says: ‘Every day I witness the way the lives of people have been improved through trading more fairly. Malawians work hard and the Fairtrade system treats them with respect by paying producers a fair price and empowering them to improve their communities. Extra money from a ‘Fairtrade Premium’ is converted into clean water and local healthcare that simply didn’t exist before.

‘As I travel around Scotland, my message to shoppers in this country is that you all have the power to change the lives of people in Malawi. You can help work to make Scotland a Fair Trade Nation and, by doing so, positively impact upon the lives of people you may never even meet’.

The programme for the fortnight includes:

  • Towera and Betsy visiting a number of local schools on Monday 2nd March, talking to students about fair trade and the positive changes it can bring to peoples lives
  • Members of the Oban Fair Trade Group turning up at the Coop in Oban between 10.00am and 2.00pm from the 23rd to 28th February, giving out samples and answering any questions
  • Fair Trade Group members doing the same thing at Tesco in Oban, between 10.00am and 2.00pm from 2nd to 7th March
  • Oban Chocolate Shop’s Fair Trade Friday on the 27th February -  pop in for cake and coffee
  • And then  – the Fair Trade Fashion Show on 5th March, at 7.30pm at Cuan Mor. For the bargain price of £8 you will be treated to fashion, food and wine.  Tickets available at Cuan Mor and House & Home or phone 07930 313 172.

For further details on the fortnight-long event, contact Katy Crowson: by phone on 01866844088 or by email at crowsonkaty@hotmail.com

Presentation of research findings on Mull and Firth of Lorn Common Skate and sea angling charter boat industry

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The Sea Life Centre at Loch Lomond Shores near Ballach is hosting a session for members and guests of the Scottish Sea Angling Conservation Network (SSACN) at 2pm on Monday 9th March.

James Thorburn will present a summary of his findings on a research  project on the Common Skate and after his presentation SSACN and SNH (Scottish Natural Heritage) will provide an update on proposed future work on Common Skate, Spur Dog and Tope. This will be followed by an opportunity to discuss both projects and issues arising from them.

The aim of James Thorburn’s  project was to get more understanding of the life history characteristics and behaviour of the Commons Skate as well as assessing the population around the Isle of Mull and Firth of Lorn. His report will incude his major findings and consider matters like growth rate, annual depth migration, maturation, annual geographical movement, population composition, fishing mortality and economic importance.

As well as this, Thorburn’s research also focused on the economic value of the charter boat industry based in Oban and running skate angling trips. He looked at the overall value of the industry and its financial impact on other businesses in the area.

SSACN members and guests are cordially invited but, to help the catering provision for the event,  are asked to RSVP with numbers by emailing contact@ssacn.org

For ayone who can’t get there but is interested in the research findings, the report can be found on the SSACN website and in the SSACN Reading Room of the SSACN Library.