Dalgety Bay anger grows

A retired Ministry of Defence radiation expert is calling for more “transparency and openness” in government as pressure mounts on the MOD to admit liability for radioactive contamination at Dalgety Bay.

Fred Dawson (56), a former MOD assistant director of health physics who specialised in radioactive waste management during a 30-year career, told The Courier he believes it is time for polluters to be named and “held to account”.

A BAN on gathering seafood and bait from a Fife beach which has radioactive particles has been extended.

It became an offence earlier this month for seafood to be collected at Dalgety Bay.

The new extension of the emergency order, which originally lasted for 28 days, has been agreed by MSPS on Holyrood's Health Committee.

The Food Standards Agency in Scotland said the order was a “precautionary measure”.

Although there is no commercial fishing or shellfish industry in the area, people are known to collect shellfish.

Warning signs had been in place for some time but new evidence indicated that radioactive particles could be ingested by fish, including shellfish, the FSA said.

An assessment said this could pose a risk.

Radioactive material was found on the foreshore of Dalgety Bay in 1990.

The contamination is thought to stem from residue of radium-coated instrument panels used on military aircraft which were incinerated and put in landfill in the area at the end of the Second World War.

Contaminated metal was found on the beach in October, prompting the closure of part of the foreshore.

Last month an investigation plan to establish how to clean up the beach was agreed by the Ministry of Defence and the Scottish Environment Protection Agency.