Wednesday, December 07, 2016

Nairnshire Committee motion passed "total opposition" to ship to ship oil transfers in the Moray Firth - video reaction

2 comments:

D.Ross said...

I see that Provost Fraser states that the ships will be 2.5 to 3 miles from the Nairn shore. This is wrong. I also see in the N.T. that the Cromarty Rising map titled “Definition of Local” from their talk was reprinted on page 14, this map is highly mis-leading!

If you plan on taking court action (which they are preparing for) then you need to make certain that what you state is 100% correct otherwise the opposing side will point this out as “incompetence” to the Sheriff!

They draw a line from the Nairn shore to a point near the “Riff Bank Buoy” & the Cromarty Firth Port Authority harbour limit (marked as a dotted line) . They then give a distance of 4.5miles between the two points. They then draw lines from Findhorn & Invergordon to another point on this CPA Harbour limit line, & state 8.5miles in both cases. This measurement is written “miles” which is the land & not the “nautical” designation. At the meeting they were stating that Invergordon is 8.5miles from this harbour line & Nairn is closer to this harbour line. They seem to have forgotten that the CPA boundary limit line runs right around the whole of the Cromarty Firth right up to the A9 road bridge which crosses it, therefore Invergordon’s distance from the CPA harbour limit is 0 miles!!

The important facts are the distances from the actual stated anchorage points listed in the STS licence application. Having done surveying & worked as a cartographic draftsman, & owning highly accurate GPS enabled OS mapping on my computer, I decided to carry out a small exercise.

Using the high water mark on Nairn central beach directly opposite the Links carpark footpath, the closest anchorage point is no. 17 at 8.82km (5.48miles or 4.76nmi). The furthest anchorage point is no. 18a at 12.8km (7.95miles or 6.91nmi). The Riff Bank East Buoy is 8.15km (5.06miles or 4.4nmi). Somewhat different to the quotes from our Provost & Cromarty Rising!

For a measurement point at Invergordon I chose the beach where the B817 meets the Saltburn Road. The closest STS anchorage point to Invergordon is no. 14 at 11.2km (6.95miles or 6.05nmi), & the furthest is anchorage point no. 18a at 16.6km (10.3miles or 8.96nmi). I also note that none of the anchorages points can be seen from Invergordon! In the Cromarty Firth, Barbraville & Nigg, can only see part of the easterly block of four anchorage points. Only the most northern anchorage point (18a) can been seen from Cromarty! This is contrary to Cromarty Rising’s Twitter photo which purports to show the new view from Cromarty with two anchorage points being visible!!

We on this side of the Firth get the FULL view of ALL of the anchorage points!!

Anonymous said...

With Michael Green's proposals for cruise liners to dock at a new Nairn jetty the firth could soon be pretty full