Stop Monster Pylons goes to Holyrood

At the start of May, we took our protest to the Scottish Parliament at Holyrood.

Over 250 people crowded into the public gallery on 2 May to listen to a members’ debate on a motion raised by Tess White MSP on new energy infrastructure in the north of Scotland.

A bus organised by Save Our Mearns was packed with campaigners from Aberdeenshire and Angus, who joined other protesters outside the Scottish parliament to voice their opinions against £20billion proposals made by SSEN Transmission to run new overhead power lines from Angus to Spittal in Caithness.

Dire warning

The public gallery quickly filled for the debate, which took place straight after First Minister’s Questions.

Tess White (Conservative regional MSP for North East) opened the debate with a dire warning: “If plans are allowed to go ahead, that towering and sprawling infrastructure will puncture our countryside and industrialise our rural communities.

“It will affect our hugely productive farmland in the north-east, which is seen as the bread basket of Scotland and boasts malting barley, soft fruit, bulbs and field vegetables. It will impact the local economy, and there are concerns about not only the financial implications but the implications for community wellbeing.

“The public gallery is full of representatives from the affected communities, and I thank them for coming today. They have travelled from Angus and Aberdeenshire to protest outside the Scottish Parliament because they feel utterly disillusioned with and disenfranchised by this process.”

She also called on Energy Minister Gilian Martin to support the Save Our Mearns petition to improve the public consultation processes for energy infrastructure projects.

Fergus Ewing (SNP MSP for Inverness and Nairn) was not alone in calling for a fuller three-hour debate on the subject.

He said: “I cannot do it justice in the time that I have and I do not think that anybody can. The issue is hugely important to Scotland. We have to reflect, get things right and not just rush on regardless, without reflection.

“In life and democracy, everybody counts or nobody counts.”

Mandatory consultation

Following the debate, our own Tracey Smith said: “We are fortunate in the Mearns area to have cross-party support on the issue of SSEN and their infrastructure at Holyrood and Westminster levels.

“SSEN can and are doing what they want currently. Something needs to change and this might just be a start. �

“We’d like to thank Tess White who raised the motion and spoke so well on our behalf, as well as Michael Marra who gave cross-party support as without this no debate would have taken place.

“Personally, I would like to hear more from Energy Minister Gillian Martin MSP about the potential of a mandatory consultation. I am hopeful most of the words from the speakers have been taken on board.”