I hope you’ve been following the Hunterston saga on these posts over the last year. In common with a lot of our work to save special places, the story has peaks of activity and long periods where nothing much appears to be happening (they are usually the time that colleagues are busy behind the scenes doing the legwork to ensure that our case is built successfully).
Southannan Sands is the special place in at risk, threatened by a proposal to construct a new coal-fired power station. This case has an added dimension – if the development went ahead Scotland would be committed to burning more coal, undermining its aspirations to tackle climate change and ramping up the emissions of greenhouse gas emissions. Hunterston is bad deal for the planet in more ways than one. Here’s some more on the background to the case.
But one of the best and most encouraging aspects of this battle is that we are not alone, opposition to the proposed power station is mobilising a coalition of campaigning that is making a real difference. I make no apologies for showing you this great sand sculpture again (you can read the whole story here - this picture courtesy of blueriverstudios).
Already over 16,000 people have added their personal objection to this damaging and risky proposal – if you are one of them, thank you. If you would like to add your voice – here’s the link.
One campaigner earns a special mention – Marco McGinty – his passion for the place has led him to take on a legal challenge into the decision by the Scottish Government to treat the Hunterston proposal as in the national interest and thus remove the rights of local people, including Marco, and wider public society to challenge the fundamental question of whether or not the development is needed in the first place. The legal challenge, known as a Judicial Review doesn’t come cheap and estimates are that Marco’s legal coats could hit £80,000. The RSPB along with other organisation is covering some of the costs – but there is still a shortfall.
You can make a donation here, knowing you would be directly supporting this landmark case.
Marco is not just a campaigner – he’s been watching and monitoring the birds at Southannan Sands for years and he recently sent through some notes from the early this autumn. The numbers of wigeon topped 600 in October and they were joined by red-breasted mergansers (pictured – surely the closest a bird can get to tartan). To his regular counts of wildfowl and waders he added peregrine and an otter.
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