McTaggart hatchery mural is ridiculous
Sir,
I have seldom read of a more ludicrous idea than ‘celebrating’ William McTaggart with a mural covering the wall of a vast factory shed, rather than leaving intact the pristine landscape that McTaggart himself celebrated so distinctively.
This is a desperate public relations exercise to gain acquiescence for the fish farm project, which could not more totally misunderstand the true value of the place as perceived by the artist.
Equally misguided is the attempt to say Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) agrees with a pretence that leaving individual rocks alone could be some sort of compensation for trashing the landscape as a whole.
SNH was perfectly clear in its 1972 report – which does indeed incorporate an authoritative geological survey – that the landscape value is such as to preclude permission for any commercial development south of the Uisead.
I raised a number of points at the Ugadale consultation to which the answer was usually, ‘I do not know.’
These covered matters such as the proposed terms of occupation of the site whether by acquisition or lease and for the existing Mill Bay site; when and how the University of Stirling research centre mutated into a Marine Harvest commercial operation; and how the existing operation grew without any neighbour notification, and what planning consent was ever granted for later stages.
Will the proposed new sheds, in the mock-ups vast but shown as tidy-looking be adorned, as is the current facility, with external tanks, towers, pumps and other excrescences, and what would be the maximum height? None of these questions seemed to have been anticipated.
Asking about potential future expansion, we were told that production could be doubled within the facility currently proposed.
In which case, why build so large at this stage? The company representatives were courteous but seemed ill-prepared for questions beyond their agenda, and the consultation, far from answering concerns, if anything strengthened my doubts on the project.
The ceaseless flow of people heading for the Gauldrons in the beautiful weather of the bank holiday weekend and after gave a much better idea of how the area is appreciated and what its value must be in attracting tourist revenues to South Kintyre. Dugald Barr, London and Machrihanish.