Dalgety Bay radiation clean up stalled by landowners

At the south and west Fife area committee yesterday, Fife councillors were told by the Ministry of Defence (MOD) that local stakeholders were holding up the Dalgety Bay beach clean up.

Stephen Ritchie told councillors: “We actually have had cabinet approval, ministerial approval – we have all the funding we need and authority to proceed.

“However, the local stakeholders are dragging their feet. We can’t get on the land to clean up the waste without the landowners permission. There are four stakeholders for the area – one of which is the Crown, which is obviously not an issue. However, the other three have been dragging their feet.”

Mr Ritchie told councillors that the MOD were looking to award the contract to a company to clean up the waste by December 13, but if talks continued to stall, they could miss their window and the project would be delayed, meaning that the clean up might not be able to happen in 2020.

Mr Ritchie said: “The company will start on-site work in April, and need those 13/ 14 weeks in winter to get the site set up and get their license from SEPA. If we miss that December 13th deadline, the contract won’t be awarded till after Christmas and that’s three or four weeks we’ve lost.”

He also warned that if the contract wasn’t awarded soon, if there was a change of government in the December 12th election, the contract could be recalled for a review.

Cllr David Barratt asked if the local stakeholders were aware of these time constraints.

Mr Ritchie said: “The other three are aware and have been told the implications. They know the implications are severe but it doesn’t seem to be cutting it.

“Far be it from me to say, that they’re using the time constraints as leverage, but we are paying for all reasonable costs to the stakeholders during the clean up.

“We are trying to get them to the table for talks but there just seems to be no sense of urgency.”