By Bruce Fegen

THE GREEN Party yesterday called on the Scottish Executive to “get its act together” and block ship-to-ship oil transfers in the Firth of Forth after Wednesday’s chemical incident at Grangemouth docks.

Residents were told to stay indoors as vapour, later identified as divinyl benzene, escaped from a tank and a 500-metre exclusion zone was set up.

Forth Ports plc, the company that owns the Grangemouth port and reportedly owns the container the chemical was stored in, wants to allow Melbourne Marine Services to transfer millions of tonnes of Russian crude oil a year into huge carriers for transfer to the Far East and US.

The proposal has been bitterly criticised as bringing no economic benefits to Fife or the Lothians—local authorities in the areas are investigating the possibility of legal action—while threatening disaster to tourism and the environment.

Green MSPs, who fiercely oppose the plans, pointed out that just yesterday Tourism Minister Patricia Ferguson highlighted the value of eco-tourism to the economy during a visit to the Scottish Seabird Centre in North Berwick, while Deputy Environment Minister Rhona Brankin has refused to block the plans.

Robin Harper, the party’s co-convener and MSP for the Lothians, said, “This chemical leak is very worrying indeed, particularly the time lapse between the accident and identification of the substance, and I would expect a full explanation.

“Major incidents like this highlight the need to minimise such risks and to avoid threats to human health and the environment in the first place.

“I want to know why it took Forth Ports so long to identify the nature of the problem and there should be a thorough investigation into their handling of this incident.”

South Scotland Green MSP and tourism speaker Chris Ballance, said, “The Executive needs to get its act together. Sustainable tourism and mad-cap schemes like oil transfers are not compatible and the incident at Grangemouth reminds us that public health and the environment must be put before the profits of companies such as Forth Ports.

“On one hand we have the Tourism Minister visiting the seabird centre…while the Deputy Minister for the Environment has failed to block ship-to-ship transfers of oil in the Forth Estuary which could potentially devastate the marine environment upon which the centre relies. I hope that the Tourism Minister will now urge her colleague to do the right thing for the economy and the environment by pulling out all the stops to block ship-to-ship oil transfers.”