GFG assurances over hydro plant lease deal
Lochaber smelter owner GFG Alliance has given assurances it is ‘business as usual’ at the Kinlochleven hydro-electric power station following the revelation it has leased it to London-based infrastructure investor Equitix.
Equitix took over the running of the power station last month from Simec, a subsidiary of Indian-born metals and mining tycoon Sanjeev Gupta’s GFG Alliance.
A GFG Alliance spokesman told the Lochaber Times this week: ‘As part of a financing exercise, Simec Lochaber Hydropower has signed a lease agreement for Kinlochleven with Equitix, a world-class infrastructure fund that owns regional assets at Nathrach and Loch Eilde Mor. Simec will remain the landlord of Kinlochleven and continue to operate and manage the asset. We anticipate no change in how Kinlochleven is run, including employment levels and the commitment to safety.’ Constructed between 1905 and 1909, Kinlochleven was the first major hydro-electric project in Britain and harnesses water power from the Black Water chain of lochs through a 13km reservoir. The Blackwater dam, which serves Kinlochleven, is the longest in the Highlands.
The hydro-electric plant was part of the £330million deal back in 2016 that also saw GFG Alliance acquire the Lochaber smelter at Fort William, along with 114,000 acres of land, from Rio Tinto.
The company’s plan had been to construct an alloy wheels plant at the smelter, creating more than 400 jobs.
However, uncertainty around Brexit by the end of last year saw the plans put on hold and after the coronavirus pandemic struck, the firm announced in
July it would be scaling back the Alvance British Aluminium smelter workforce on a permanent basis. Councillor Andrew Baxter, chairman of Highland Council’s Lochaber Area Committee, who lives in Kinlochleven, said this latest news illustrated why many Lochaber residents were sceptical about any announcements from GFG Alliance.
‘We have heard many promises about how their ownership would transform the future of the factory and the Fort William area,’ Councillor Baxter told the Lochaber Times this week. ‘We are still waiting to see any action. Now we hear they are quietly disposing of valuable assets, which the taxpayer helped to buy in the first place with a Scottish Government financial guarantee. I am amazed there hasn’t been any form of public parliamentary scrutiny of their commercial behaviour and the financial agreements with government. It’s about time a spotlight is shone on them by our MSPs.’
Peter Davis and his wife Lucy, from Blarnafoldach, above, carried on an almost 40year tradition of attending the Commando Memorial, despite there being no afternoon Remembrance Sunday service.
Mr Davis spent 15 years in the Royal Marines, part of which was a year in Aden during the withdrawl of Britain from the then colony.
Turn to page 12 for more Remembrance Day photographs.
‘We have heard many promises...we are still waiting to see action’