The Faroese owned Scottish Salmon Company (SSC) are persisting with their plans to develop an open cage salmon farm at Millstone Point, Arran despite the unanimous rejection by the North Ayrshire Council Planning Committee, in March, and large scale local and mainland opposition.
This persistence indicates the large profits that are available to them to the detriment of the environment, our natural capital and therefore our economy.
They have applied for a SEPA CAR license to discharge polluting emissions into the sea from their farm and this indicates that they will be submitting a planning appeal to the Scottish Government before the deadline next month.
The consultation is available on this link , as are the application documents to download.
You can object to their “application to pollute” by following the link and clicking ‘Have your say’.
You have until 16 June 2021 to submit your objections.
SEPA have supplied an address for those wishing to submit a written objection to the CAR license application for Millstone Point, and the three applications at the Cumbraes and Bute.
SEPA is able to receive, and take account of written representations regarding CAR applications that are open for consultation.
Any representation should be posted to the following address:
Scottish Environment Protection Agency
6 Parklands Avenue
Eurocentral
Holytown
North Lanarkshire
ML1 4WQ
Paul Chandler, from Friends of Millstone Point, has compiled this short guidance:
The key things to comment upon resulting from the input of organic waste, medicine residues, chemical treatments, and sea lice emissions from a licensed biomass of salmon are:
1. The water environment, including potential impacts to marine life (eg. the effects of the chemical son kelp, shellfish, and sea lice on wild Atlantic salmon smolts).
2. The interests of users of the water environment, resulting from the proposed discharges (eg. what is the unknown effect of chemical bath treatments on wild swimmers and snorkellers).
To quote our friends and colleagues – and most importantly members of our community, Lucy and Wally Wallace: Arran Wild Walks – “We have to stand firm against these applications as they crash against us like waves on the shore. We have to hold together, a community of ordinary folk who just want to relax and live our lives… We will never give in, because it is our home that is at stake.
COAST and Friends of Millstone Point will be working closely and give updates when they can.
Please see the COAST and Friends of Millstone Point Facebook pages for details.
Image credits: Friends of Millstone Point