ScottishPower running scared?
Latest information on ScottishPower’s attempt to install the ‘gas plant’ - a major chemical-industrial complex - in Byley, Cheshire, despite massive local opposition, indicate ScottishPower may be running scared and seeking an unfair advantage.
‘Guardian’ financial editor, David Gow, reported in that national newspaper’s 13/4/04 edition that: ‘ScottishPower, the energy group, is trying to enlist the support of senior cabinet ministers to overcome local resistance to its plans to build a £100m gas storage plant in old salt mines in rural Cheshire.’
John Halstead, prominent champion of the fight against the gas plant, and chairman of action group Residents Against the Plant (RAP), immediately commented: ‘If ScottishPower really are trying to lobby ministers this is grossly unfair, since a full and proper public inquiry on the gas plant was held at Cheshire County Hall in December 2002. The public inquiry was the definitive, fair opportunity for everyone to have their say, and a report on the inquiry findings was written by Mr Robert Lyon, the inquiry chairman, and sent to John Prescott (Deputy Prime Minister) and Patricia Hewitt of the Department of Trade and Industry, for the final decision. We await their decision and are outraged at the possibility that anybody might seek unfairly to influence ministers. We have therefore written to John Prescott, asking whether or not he – or other ministers – have been approached by ScottishPower, and asking that RAP should be given equal opportunity to make our case, if ScottishPower have been given a hearing. We shall pursue this matter with vigour, and our friends in ‘Councils Against the Plant’ – 21 local Parish and Town Councils united against the gas plant – are also writing to John Prescott, just as we have done.’
RAP’s Press Spokesman, Dr John Edwards added, ‘I’ve spoken to journalist David Gow, who was straightforward and open-minded, but who had been given some inaccuracies by ScottishPower, such as the erroneous suggestion that ‘old salt mines’ would be used to store gas, rather than artificial salt cavities of technically-dubious design. I also stressed the truth that the UK does not need the gas plant. It’s a device to enable ScottishPower to make money: it’s greed not need.’
Finally, the question must be asked: if it is true that ScottishPower are attempting to lobby ministers, then why would they do it? Is it because they’re afraid they’re going to lose?
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