Thursday 28 March 2024
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Letters / Not testing construction workers a ‘huge risk’

We are very concerned that SSE have no plans to Covid-test people who they or their contractors bring up to Shetland.

The Viking Liaison Group met on Tuesday night and we gave them advance notice that we wanted to talk about how they would prevent bringing Covid to Shetland.

It was very disappointing that they just repeated the PR statement from last week, including the line about the wellbeing of local communities being their number one priority.

Strict Covid-19 measures will be in place, SSEN insists

Forty per cent of Covid infections are believed to be asymptomatic, so not testing is a huge risk.

We are lucky in that Shetland is a bubble that is a bit easier to protect than other parts of the country and I think that SSE need to recognise that they have a responsibility to help protect that bubble.

Arguing that they are just the same as anybody else coming to Shetland will not wash. They are not.

They already have people coming up on a weekly basis and the numbers are going to rise sharply.

The main contractor, RJ McLeod has workers and machinery coming up this week.

If SSE really do believe that the wellbeing of the local community comes first then they need to show a much stronger commitment to it.

Andrew Archer
Chairman
On behalf of Tingwall, Whiteness and Weisdale Community Council

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