By Ken Bell, angling correspondent

SCOTTISH AND Southern Energy tried to influence the Scottish Executive over European legislation on the restoration of rivers, Tay District Salmon Fisheries Board has claimed.

Under the Freedom of information Act, the board has discovered that SSE asked Scottish ministers to direct SEPA that any river management plans should be designed so they don’t reduce hydro output.

The Tay Board recently launched a campaign to have the water flow restored in the River Garry in Perthshire, most of which is abstracted for hydro production by SSE.

They hope it can be achieved under the EU’s Water Framework Directive (WFD), but Dr David Summers, the board’s fisheries manager, said yesterday he had been alarmed by documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act.

“We have made some alarming discoveries, which should be a matter of grave concern to anyone who assumes the implementation of the Water Framework Directive will just be a matter for SEPA,” he said. “There was an exchange of correspondence between SSE and the last Scottish Executive, where SSE clearly tried to influence the implementation of the WFD.

“In July 2005, SSE wrote to the then minister for environment and rural development claiming, ‘We believe the time is right for ministers to state they intend to direct SEPA to the effect that river basin management plans should be designed so that they do not lead to any reduction in the output of Scotland’s hydro-electric schemes’.”

Dr Summers said SSE also stated, “Confirmation from ministers that they intend to issue it would give SEPA greater clarity in the way in which it should carry out its responsibilities... Ministers have the opportunity, by directing SEPA, to demonstrate their commitment to ensuring the full benefit of Scotland’s renewable energy potential is fulfilled.

“Reassuringly, a subsequent reply by the deputy minister acknowledged that a ‘blanket approach to hydro power as proposed in your letter would not be permitted under the directive’.”

He went on, “More concerning is she then stated that ‘I give you my full assurance that it is ministers, not SEPA, who will take decisions on critical aspects of wider WFD implementation’, and in another letter she said reducing hydro output was something they would wish to avoid.”

A letter from the Deputy Minister to SSE on June 30, 2006, reveals an involvement between SSE, the Executive and SEPA, Dr Summers claimed.

In it, the then minister welcomed “the pro-active and collaborative approach which Scottish and Southern Energy has shown over the last year in relation to our joint objectives for energy generation and environmental protection.”

The minister then referred to three river projects, two in the Highlands and the other the Garry, which the letter claims “had been agreed.”

The Garry project was to move water from a tributary of the River Spey to the Garry to increase the flow there, a suggestion which SSE have claimed came from SEPA.

But Dr Summers said, “We have heard it stated by SSE, in fact again as recently as this week, that the three projects were proposed by SSE. These were subsequently agreed in principle between SSE, SEPA and the Scottish Executive.”

He added, “One of our major concerns is that the Water Framework Directive is there to improve the water environment for, among other things, the benefit of society and it is clearly intended that the public should be involved in the decision- making process.

“However in Scotland, the WFD has still to reach the public’s imagination, probably because the public has heard little about it, apart from those who may be impacted by it.

“It must be a concern that the company responsible for the greatest water abstraction is Scotland has been able to try to influence the process from behind the scenes while the positive benefits of WFD have scarcely been aired.”

A major objective of the Tay board’s campaign would be to heighten awareness of the Water Framework Directive “so society at large can decide whether damage to rivers should be restored, as it is meant to be.”

He added, “The board are not seeking to significantly reduce electric generation but merely asking that some excessive and unnecessary damage done during a different era is undone as far as possible.

“The River Garry is the worst example of this in Scotland. The Garry ought to be Scotland’s flagship WFD project, why not do it well?”