Community complaints over Mossmorran show dramatic fall from 1600 to just 45

“It no longer looks like you’re living next door to Mordor”, Dunfermline Central councillor Jean Hall Muir (SNP) said of Shell and ExxonMobil plants.

Environment, Transportation & Climate Change Scrutiny Committee councillors were told on Tuesday that “significant progress” has been made in reducing complaints and concerns in the last few years.

The latest figures from 2023 show that operators only received 45 complaints last year compared to more than 1,671 in 2020 and 1,421 in 2019 when a series of major unplanned flaring events at Fife Ethylene Plant triggered a huge community backlash.

“The conclusions are that there have been significant improvements at the Mossmorran complex since flaring events in 2019 and 2020,” Kenny Bisset, Fife’s lead officer for environmental strategy, said.

Cllr Hall Muir agreed that there is a "measurable, easily observable difference to the quality".

“I’m really happy to see the reduction in complaints from what was the high in 2020 and it no longer looks like you’re living next door to Mordor on a cloudy day," she said.

Councillor Darren Watt (Conservative for Cowdenbeath) also praised the improvements.

“The fact that it's come such a long way in such a short period of time is a real testament to the efforts from Exxon and Shell for work done to address community concerns. Praise and gratitude has to be put out there publicly,” he said.

Councillor Mary Bain Lockhart (Labour for Lochgelly, Cardenden and Benarty) was more conservative with her praise.

As the recipient of “literally hundreds of complaints” from local residents during the worst of the flaring, Cllr Lockhart said it wasn’t “like living next to Mordor but instead like living in it”.

“It took years to improve and it actually took threats from SEPA and the Health and Safety Executive to actually close [the plant] down,” she said.

“I’m very glad what’s happened has happened and we’re all very grateful that we’re no longer having the disruption to our daily lives that we were experiencing, but it wasn’t because of the suffering to the communities that Shell and Exxon made the investment that was necessary to make people feel that the plants were safe and that their lives were not disrupted by it.”