RENEWED CALLS FOR TALKS AFTER ‘LYSFOSS’ GROUNDING

The Highland Council is to seek top-level talks to safeguard the environment from a shipping accident around its shores. The call for meetings with Transport Secretary, John Prescott, and Scottish Secretary, Helen Liddell, follows the grounding of the Norwegian cargo vessel, Lysfoss, off Mull.

The Oslo-registered Lysfoss was on a regular route from Sweden to Belfast when it ran aground on rocks off Morvern early on Monday 7 May. Highland Councillors have been warning for many years of the serious risk of an environmental catastrophe and the need to restrict the movement of shipping around the Minches and the Pentland Firth.

They formally requested in 1998 that the Government ask the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) to support the removal of the Right of Innocent Passage until a range of safety measures are in place. They are now set to renew this call. They want the movement of oil tankers and smaller vessels carrying hazardous cargoes controlled and policed by coastguards.

Mechanisms of control would include: Compulsory coastguard reporting for all shipping; all vessels to normally travel to the west of the Western Isles; all vessels to carry transponders; radar to monitor all shipping movements; pilotage of vessels, if required.

Councillors Bill Fulton and Michael Foxley have led the Councils campaign and a more detailed debate is expected at the next meeting of the Land and Environment Select Committee.

Councillor Fulton said: "This latest incident off Mull once again highlights the lack of adequate control of movements around our shores. Our request is to control shipping movements by suspension of the Right of Innocent Passage. The consequences of a major spillage for the marine environment and our coastal communities would be catastrophic."