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19 April, 2007
WHILST out door stopping this week, in addition to the proposed wind
farm and the Bressay Bridge, the £8 million hand out to the oil
industry was the hottest issue which I was confronted with by those
I spoke to. Initially I wanted to give the SLAP directors (all SIC
councillors) the benefit of the doubt about this supposed investment
but the more folk I spoke to and the more people that raised it made
me think that maybe I was missing something.
According to the press report £8 million has been loaned to the oil
industry to build a new terminal and make other improvements to
Scatsta. This is the same industry which is currently getting $67 a
barrel and where operators such as Exxon, Shell and BP posted record
profits in the 10s of billions each last year. Yet they have to come
for a loan from a community of 22,000 folks?
Let's be clear about this. This was, of course, nothing to do with
the threat of them pulling out of Scatsta to Aberdeen or Sumburgh or
to protect the reportedly 100 jobs associated with the airport. This
is a wise investment for SLAP who will, if they are to believed, get
a return on this investment within the six year time frame the oil
industry has guaranteed to stay at Scatsta. I am sure that SLAP has
some cast iron guarantee that should the operators pull out of
Scatsta before the six years that there will be a clause inserted in
the agreement for all this cash to be repaid!
Now I will let you do the sums yourselves as you don't have to be a
chartered accountant to figure out that £8 million divided by six is
a lot of cash, which I presume will be recouped by increased rent
and landing
changes. But under confidentiality clauses (that is another issue) I
am sure we will never get this kind of information so can never make
up our minds whether this is a wise investment on our behalf or not.
Remember this is not a commercial bank we are talking about but
money which, ironically, came
from the oil industry and which is supposed to be used for the
benefit of all of Shetland.
This of course can be compared to the level playing field of the SIC
contribution, in kind - honestly no cash was offered in any form -
of £900,000 (about 10 per cent of the Scatsta loan) to the Sumburgh
runway
extension.
Being a strong supporter of rural communities and recognising the
valuable role that Scatsta plays in the north mainland (even some
south mainland people work there) I have never had a problem with
Shetland having a second airport at Scatsta. But if the oil industry
wants one there it should pay for it. Simple really?
Rick Nickerson
Independent Candidate for Shetland South Ward 5
Ringan, Ireland, Bigton
nickerson@ringan.shetland.co.uk |
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