By Bruce Fegen

GREEN MSPs yesterday called for communities concerned about ship-to-ship oil transfers in other parts of the UK to join them in calling for a review of the need for such transfers and, if they are deemed necessary, for the safest potential locations to be identified.

They have been liaising with campaigners against ship-to-ship transfers across the UK—including Falmouth, a special area of conservation in Cornwall, where an almost identical scenario to the Forth oil transfer controversy has emerged in recent years.

At Lyme Bay in Dorset, transfers were ditched following fierce opposition.

Orkney has been identified as a suitable site for transfers, but Greens stress that any such judgment should be made as part of a UK-wide strategy.

The MSPs are now writing to Transport Secretary Douglas Alexander, who is also the Scottish Secretary, calling for an urgent assessment to establish if such transfers must take place and, if so, the safest locations for them.

They have also called for the underlying economic and environmental case for oil transfer operations to be reassessed and for a timetable for stalled regulations governing STS oil transfers, following original indications that draft regulations would be ready in early 2006.

Mark Ruskell, Mid Scotland and Fife, said, “There are proposals for oil transfers emerging along the whole coast of the UK and absolutely no strategy in place to identify the best locations or to assess whether these operations are even necessary.

“It is time for Government to step back and examine the whole coastline to assess which areas could be best suited for the transfers that absolutely minimise the risk to the environment and local economies.

“I’d also encourage anyone affected by such plans to contact the Greens so we can join forces in lobbying the UK and Scottish governments to put the long-term interests of communities before the profits of private companies.”

Dr Miles Hoskins, a Falmouth marine biologist, who is backing the call for a UK-wide strategic plan, said, “Plans to bring STS to Falmouth have met with almost universal opposition.

“Falmouth Harbour commissioners are supposed to consider such plans impartially and balance the interests of all stakeholders but, instead, they have consistently downplayed the environmental risks and exaggerated the wider socio- economic benefits.”

Mr Ruskell added, “There is a real legislative guddle in our seas and we need to see reforms at both Westminster and Holyrood that clarify the responsibilities of harbour authorities, which in many areas of the UK are a law unto themselves.”