Great news! We’ve just heard that the Reporter, Michael Culshaw has recommended that the fish farm proposal by OFD be refused. The reporter has spent the last 4 months deliberating since the public inquiry in February and has come to the conclusion that :
The full report is available as a PDF file download at this web address : http://www.mailbigfile.com/717066b72a6ac5be1994cb22f1688d18/listFiles.php
So, it appears that the visual impact argument was enough to swing it in our favour. The west side of Bute is a very special and scenic area, almost hebridean compared to the populated east coast of the island. It was always a mystery to us that OFD Ltd really believed that a large fish farm installation would not disrupt the visual amenity (oops, thats inquiry-speak – the views to you and us) of such a beautiful land and seascape.
This whole thing has caused a lot of people an awful lot of heartache and wasted huge amounts of time and public money as well breaking up previously solid friendships – not something that any of us ( including the applicants, I suspect) really wanted. However, 6 years ago OFD failed to take on board the fact that placing the fish farm in their desired location would cause immense local objections. In our opinion this was always going to be a hugely controversial proposal but what ultimately did it in was that it was incredibly poorly executed.
We have huge thanks to bestow upon all the locals who joined the campaign, but we really need to thank our legal representative. Some say he’s been known to gallop along the beach at Ettrick Bay on his white charger. However, when he’s not doing that he can be found representing his high profile clients from his chambers in London or relaxing at his beautiful home on Bute at Glecknabae. I am of course referring to John McGhee, our wonderful QC, without whom we would have been floundering at the public inquiry. Great work John, thank you.
