HNP petition handed in

A PETITION urging local property developer SLAP not to start legal proceedings to evict engineering firm HNP from its current premises at Lerwick’s Commercial Road has been handed in.

 Amy Inkster, the woman who set up the online petition just before Christmas, said on Monday that copies of the 1,279 signatures had been sent to SLAP and Shetland Charitable Trust, as well as all members of Shetland Islands Council.

SLAP, or Shetland Leasing & Property Developments Ltd, is the charitable trust’s property arm.

Last month, it emerged that the company had been trying to remove HNP Engineers as tenants for the last 18 months.

The company owns the building it has been operating from for the last 34 years, but not the ground it sits on.

SLAP is in the process of selling the site to Chester-based property developer Cityheart, which secured a £44million contract to build student accommodation across the region for the University of the Highlands and Islands.

SLAP said it had been trying to help HNP to find an alternative site, but the firm’s managing director Ian Walterson maintains that the assistance he has received was half-hearted.

Walterson has warned that the highly regarded company may have to close, with the loss of 16 jobs, should it be evicted.