YOUR VIEWS: New nuclear back in the spotlight, chance to join local walking group and debate over turbine laydown plans in Thurso
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Grown-up conversations on nuclear power
The “Secretary of State Against Scotland” Alister Jack has blithely announced, without any consultation with the Scottish Government, that he has asked the UK Energy Minister to plan for a new nuclear site in Scotland.
Sadly we should be used to this kind of arrogant anti-democratic behaviour from the UK Tory government! It is their contemptible way of doing business with Scotland with Alister Jack in the role of Colonial Administrator!
Then we have Caithness’s lone Tory, Struan Mackie, spouting utter bilge all over the front page of last week’s Groat! I must inform Councillor Mackie than in a lifetime of opposition to nuclear power I have had countless “grown up conversations” on the subject, face to face in rooms full of people and online.
I have read “grown up” papers and reports by Professor MV Ramana and Professor Daniel Jassby among others. Indeed, Professor Jassby has said: “With solar, wind and wave energy all around us, to rely on fusion reaction would be foolish.”
To listen to Councillor Mackie you would think all of Scotland supported investment in nuclear power except for a small clique in the central belt, when in fact the opposite is true, only the small clique of support is in Caithness.
There is no place for dangerous, ruinously expensive nuclear energy in a Scotland committed to green energy. The Scottish Government have made this clear and have the democratic support of the Scottish people, and that is the result of many grown up conversations, about the future, about the planet and our continued existence on it. Conversations don’t come any more “grown up” than that.
When Alister Jack refers to a possible “unionist regime” at Holyrood after 2026, I find his choice of words a little troubling. Does he mean that if Scotland continues to reject London-based unionist parties at the polls that a “unionist regime” will be forced on us?
Nothing emanating from this dangerously out-of-control Tory government would surprise me!
Drew Macleod
Hill Avenue
Wick
Get into walking or climb a hill with Caithness group
Are you interested in going for a walk or climbing a hill but feel that you don't have enough confidence to go on your own? Are you looking for a knowledgeable, experienced group to join?
The Caithness Mountaineering and Ski Club is looking for new members. Don’t let the name put you off; our main activity today is simple hillwalking, although some members do still get the ropes out or launch themselves into the wilderness on skis or mountain bikes.
We will be holding a “taster” day to introduce ourselves to anyone who might be interested in joining the club on June 22, based at the log cabin in Borgie Forest.
There will be the opportunity to join an experienced club member for a gentle forest walk, a more demanding hill walk or even a mountain bike trip into the wild country. All are welcome, including families.
If you are interested in finding out more, please contact us via Facebook, our website (search Caithness mountaineering) or phone Willie Marshall on 01847 894237.
Willie Marshall
Rockwell Crescent
Thurso
Brownfield sites offer better place for laydown
I’ll attend the “temporary” turbine laydown area public exhibition in June, but in the meantime isn’t Dounreay (already a brownfield site) the obvious contender for the planners to consider? Or is that too easy? And indicates a green light for mini nuclear reactors at Dounreay?
One way or another the turbine components will have to pass Dounreay en route to Strathy South.
Unless mistaken a greenfield site put forward a few years ago was Scrabster Farm – unmistakeably “green and pleasant” land. Now another such green field is to despoil Thurso as if the open-air second-hand car showroom, backing on to private houses as it does, is not enough to suggest to North Coast 500 visitors that they are fast approaching an industrial town.
Helen Rand
Murkle View
Thurso
Development will not benefit people of Thurso
I see in that Highland Council is considering a planning application for the storage of wind farm components on farmland adjacent to the Dounreay road opposite the Weigh Inn hotel.
This is the same council that refused Asda permission for a store there on the grounds that it was not designated as commercial land; they also refused permission for a hotel as it was not in keeping with the unspoiled view, then they refused permission for housing development claiming that this area was on the development plan as a play and recreation area, even although it has never been used for this purpose.
The applicant claims that the development will only be for a period of two years and the site will be restored to its original greenfield use. Does anyone actually believe that this will happen?
Once the ground has been covered over with hard standing it will never be returned to farmland. Do councillors ever sit down and think of what they are allowing to happen in the county?
We read frequently about the number of cruise ships that are arriving every year at Scrabster and yet the first thing that visitors coming up from Scrabster and coming in from the west of the county will see is an ugly construction site – is this the message we want to send out to tourists?
What benefit will this development have for the people of Thurso? Absolutely nothing, it will just be a huge eyesore on the landscape, making money for a few individuals.
I have lived in Thurso for more than 60 years and have loved every minute of it, but I despair when I look around and see nothing but empty shops in the town, the roads in a disgraceful state of repair and the pavements not much better, and now we are turning part of the town into what will become another industrial wasteland.
Hugh Millar
Castlegreen Road
Thurso
Help support those with breast cancer
Breast Cancer Now’s Afternoon Tea is back this August, and I can’t wait to dust off my whisk and stick the kettle on to raise vital funds for Breast Cancer Now. Will you join me?
Every 10 minutes, someone in the UK hears the words “you have breast cancer”. Sadly, I lost my dear mum Jane to breast cancer when she was just 56. Years later, when I found a lump while breastfeeding my daughter Liberty, I wasted no time getting it checked out.
Hearing I had the same disease as my mum was devastating, but the advances in treatment since my mum’s diagnosis meant I recovered and could be there for my little girl as she grew up.
Only breast cancer wasn’t done with me yet, and in February 2023 I was diagnosed again in my other breast. Luckily this tumour was caught early, so my treatment has been successful.
It’s been a tough journey, especially for Liberty who is older now and understands so much more – which is why we’ve decided to host an Afternoon Tea for Breast Cancer Now.
Every day, Breast Cancer Now’s research brings us closer to finding new treatments and a future where everyone with breast cancer lives and is supported to live well. That’s a world where Liberty and I can be together for many more years to come. But they can’t do it without your support.
By joining us, you can raise money that helps provide expert health information, fund cutting-edge research projects and give someone like me much-needed reassurance from specialist nurses on Breast Cancer Now’s free helpline, which can make all the difference.
So, why not get your friends together and host an Afternoon Tea this August by signing up for your fundraising kit now at: breastcancernow.org/afternoon-tea
Lucy Preston
On behalf of Breast Cancer Now
ONLINE VIEWS
Kate Forbes told of plight of Caithness mums facing 100-mile journeys when in labour
About time. This situation has clearly illustrated from the outset the differences that have developed since 2016 in the governance of this country.
It was always an appalling solution to a logistics desk-created “problem” to force new, urban-inspired centralised policy on a rural, geographically isolated community. It is a further demonstration of arrogance or ignorance or both that all the sensible arguments were not just ignored but refused a hearing.
How an NHS trust came to become responsible for such a barbaric solution and have it so solidly protected after it was implemented requires root and branch forensic inspection. Governance is supposed to administer our taxes to fairly provide the services needed for the population to thrive, not pick bits out of the sociology and political manuals in order to justify savings.
Only someone who had no knowledge of this area could conceive such a plan and heaven knows what aberration was being fostered for our own government to carry it out.
What happened to the people when political parties like Labour and the SNP removed regional councils from their agenda was that the expertise, working practices and need of smaller but divergent areas were never considered.
The Tories have never pretended to be interested in anything but their own ideology in the first place or “austerity” wouldn’t have happened. The disgraceful and inhuman decision to impose such danger and distress on the women and families of Caithness is a terrible thing, and it has been pursued to deaf ears from its inception to the present time when now we have Kate Forbes who fought a similar situation in her constituency, to her eternal credit, apply her considerable intelligence and integrity to an abhorrent situation that should never have got a hearing in the first place.
I have recently sent three emails since a father-of-four became health minister and to each I have received anodyne responses suggesting that I should embark on a complaints procedure. Well enough. Good luck Kate Forbes, John Swinney has always shown heart, so maybe there is hope now.
But what happened was more than just a scandal, it was a demonstration that people do not matter, it’s money that does.
Ros Curwood
Thurso
‘All to play for’ – Jamie Stone pushes Dounreay as the site for Scottish nuclear generation after surprise revelation
Common sense at last for the people of Caithness/Sutherland and Scotland. High volume of energy production that we control, not our European friends. France is 70 per cent nuclear and we buy their surplus.
Christopher Voice
Thurso
