Community / Petition calls on councillors not to attend Viking celebration dinner
A WELL KNOWN and outspoken local tour guide is asking islanders to sign an online petition calling on councillors and senior council officials not to attend celebrations early next week which are being held to mark the completion of the Viking Energy wind farm.
Laurie Goodlad Pottinger said that by attending events planned for 2 and 3 September, councillors would be endorsing practices that are not in Shetland’s interest.
This week SSE has been marking the completion of the controversial 103 turbine wind farm plus associated subsea connection to the national grid which represents a £1.2 billion investment.
See our report here:
While nationally the completion of the “UK’s most productive wind farm” was celebrated as a major step forward on the journey to net zero, many people on the islands feel they and Shetland have been handed a raw deal.
The petition reads: “We, the undersigned, request that our elected and appointed representatives do not attend an event celebrating a project that has caused significant division in our community.
“Alistair Phillips-Davies (CEO of SSE) has said they are already planning more projects for Shetland and stated that community benefits should not be so extensive as to make it ‘uneconomic to bring in the assets in the first place’.
“These projects lack the social license to operate here, and so should not be supported by representatives and community leaders.”
SSE is hosting a celebratory dinner in Lerwick on Monday and an opening ceremony the following day.
Already a number of councillors have said they were “uncomfortable” with Phillips-Davies’ remarks earlier in the week and would not attend.
Labour councillor Tom Morton described the company’s attitude towards Shetland as “colonial, patronising and contemptuous”. He added: “As far as SSE is concerned, Shetland is a battery park.”
Speaking to Shetland News earlier on Friday, and before news of the petition emerged later on Friday afternoon, Green councillor Alex Armitage said: “Shetland’s renewable energy resources should be used to build wealth into our community, not extracted for private profit.
“I don’t support this model of development and have declined to attend the dinner.”
The SIC’s political leader Emma Macdonald said earlier today that she uses every opportunity to make the case for more benefits for the local community.
“With any engagement around this development or any other potential developments I continue to make the case that communities need to see a benefit that relates to reducing the significant impact high fuel costs have on people’s ability to live well,” she said.
“The conditions that make Shetland a good place to develop renewables are the same conditions that make it difficult for people to heat their homes and we can’t afford to stop that messaging.”
SSE said the “thank you event for partners and stakeholders involved in the project” was an “internal event”.
The petition can be found here.
