Council has nothing to do with Viking

Mr Ian Tinkler asks why there isn’t a lot of stuff in my election statement about Viking Energy.  (‘Not a happy prospect’, SN, 10 April 2012)

The answer is very simple. I am standing for election to Shetland Islands Council, where, should I be elected, I intend to be involved in all the bread and butter issues which are the business of the local authority.

The Scottish Government has made a decision about Viking Energy, and Shetland Islands Council has no more involvement.

What needs to be done by those who get elected to the council is clear. They must work together to get a grip, where control has been lost, and quickly too. It is clear from all the folk I speak to that that impression is general.

When I was on the council, and there were decisions to be made about Viking Energy, I took part in them openly, and I never hid behind homemade declarations of interest when doing so.

I am also interested to note that he finds Shetland people polite. They are, and I think at least part of that is due to being brought up on a small island, where the prevailing ethic is to try not to fall out with your neighbours on the grounds that you will be meeting them again tomorrow, and indeed, the day after.

I think the kind of disagreeable ‘attack the man rather than the ball’ debate he, and other members of Sustainable Shetland have favoured over the years has done a great deal to limit the kind of rational discussion of this issue which might once have been possible.

Yours sincerely

Drew Ratter
Ollaberry