The Government yesterday took an enormous stride towards meeting the needs of the North Sea oil industry by authorising three more sites in Scotland for the construction of concrete production platforms.
Mr Ross, Scottish Secretary, said he had given planning approval for construction yards at Macringan╒s Point, Campbeltown, to be operated by Mowlem-Taylor Offshore, at Portavadie on Loch Fyne for Sea Platform Constructors (Scotland), and at Hunterston on the Clyde estuary for the Andoc group.
This means that six of the seven ╥preferred platform designs╙ identified by the Department of Energy in August have sites available for construction. Planning clearance has been given in time for the contractors to accept orders for delivery in the summer of 1977.
Mr Bruce Millan, Minister of State at the Scottish Office, said in Glasgow that the Government would take all three sites into public ownership to ensure that there was no delay in development. State ownership would also provide Government control over reinstatement of the site in the future. Mr Millan pointed out that planning application for an additional site at Portkil Bay, Dunbartonshire, was the subject of an inquiry, and he could not comment on it.
Some indication of the urgency which the Scottish Office attaches to platform building capacity is reflected in Mr Ross╒s decision on the Portavadie site, which was the subject of an inquiry. This site on Loch Fyne is in one of the ╥preferred conservation zones╙ designated in the coastal planning guidelines published by the Government last year.
