Executive briefing for Local Authority Councillors

The Highlands is a beautiful unspoilt area of the UK with spectacular scenery and over 3000 miles of coastline. It varied coastline includes an enormous range of sensitive coastal habitats containing many Sites of Special Scientific Interest, Special Areas of Conservation, Special Protection Area’s, National Scenic Areas and reserves managed by the Royal Society for Protection of Birds and Scottish Wildlife Trust. Tourism, and the large number of fish and shellfish farms are vital to the local economy. The region also borders major tanker routes and oil production areas.

Against this backdrop, an executive briefing for local authority councillors and senior managers was held to highlight the need for contingency planning and training and to discuss the damage that can be suffered by the environment due to oil pollution and aggressive clean-up techniques, the recovery processes and Net Environment Benefit Analysis. A representative from the Maritime and Coastguard Agency spoke about the Governments role in an oil spill incident, whilst Kathi Stanzel of ITOPF outlined the compensation regimes that are currently in place. Steve Panton ended the day with an informative discussion on the role of the media.