In their Summer newsletter COAST report that The Scottish Salmon Company have officially launched an appeal against the rejection of the planning application by North Ayrshire Planning Committee. Featured image credit James Appleton.
North Arran Salmon Farm
We are sad to report that the Scottish Salmon Company (SSC) are persisting with their plans for an open-cage salmon farm at Millstone Point, despite the application being unanimously rejected by all parties at the North Ayrshire Planning Committee in March.
The appeal has been registered and the planning authority have been asked for their response to the appeal. Interested members of the public are entitled to make representation. You can send these via email to the case officer Liz Kerr or post them to their office. Any representations received will be passed to the planning authority and agent/appellant for their comments. The case details can be seen here and responses given to the officer at Liz.Kerr@scot.gov.uk
The SSC have also applied for a SEPA “CAR” license, to discharge polluting emissions into the sea from their farm; you can object to their “application to pollute” by following this link to SEPA’s consultation and clicking ‘Have your say’ before Monday 5th July.
COAST continue to support the Friends of Millstone Point who are leading the campaign against this proposal. They have released this short guidance for those wishing to respond:
“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 chemicals on 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).”