True cost of alcohol

Sir, At last the Scottish Government’s minimum unit pricing (MUP) for alcohol will be law and I hope it will be effective.

But it would appear there is going to be another cost, this time to Arran’s environment, with the Isle of Arran Distillery’s proposal to discharge untreated distillery effluent and trade effluent directly into the sea around Arran’s coast.

It proposes to do this next to Lennymor, which is a designated as a National Scenic Area (NSA). Into this NSA it is proposed to build a pumping station the size of a domestic garage, whose diesel generator will be running up to six hours a day to discharge two 30,000-litre tankers (60,000 litres per day) which will be parked next to the pump house.

The proposed hardcore turning area for the tankers is of a size that will easily accommodate the 15 to 20 campervans which it will inevitably attract. The effluent volume applied to be discharged is just over 20 million litres per year. This is an annual equivalent to one and a half times the domestic waste of the village of Lochranza into this pristine environment.

Surely this project should be ‘called in’ by the Scottish Government to re-examine this proposal and once again look at the minimum price Arran’s environment should pay before this ill-considered project industrialises one of Arran’s last accessible wilderness areas forever.

Yours, Donald Mackelvie, Macneish, Lamlash.