Shetland-Music.com

The Director of Shetland Arts, Gwilym Gibbons, has issued an invite to the Health and Safety Executive to visit Shetland to review what he terms "the unique circumstances" surrounding the planning permission threat to 'Mareel', Shetland's proposed new cinema and music complex, currently planned to be located in central Lerwick.

Mr Gibbons said that "bureaucratic stubborness" was standing in the way of commonsense, and he felt it was "immensely frustrating that the HSE, sitting in their offices hundred of miles away from Shetland, will not reconsider the unique Shetland situation when so much is at stake".

Mr Gibbons comments and invite come in the wake of a national HSE safety edict regarding refusing or severly restricting planning permission for any new occupied buildings and premises located in areas close to fuel tanks and depots, following the Buncefield explosion in 2007.

In practise the safety guidelines issued by the HSE recommend that planning permission should be refused for such developments within a 250m - 400m radius of such depots.

Shetland Arts plans are for 'Mareel' to be located at Lewick's North Ness, next door to the new £11m museum and archive, but this area falls within the HSE guidelines, given its close proximity to the North Ness Fuel depot.

Mr Gibbons said that Shetland Arts would be willing to pay for an HSE officer to visit Shetland to hear their case for -reconsideration but they (the HSE) currently seemed uninterested in looking at the special circumstances which made Lerwick's North Ness fuel depot, and its associated operating practises, very different indeed from sites such as Buncefield. "The HSE have claimed that the area is safe for all those already working or living within it" said Mr Gibbons "but still they seek to apply these limitations to the wide surrounding area. We think this is a serious anomaly. Either the area is safe or it isn't and we feel the HSE should clarify this position still further".

Shetland Islands Council is due to consider Shetland Arts plannning application for 'Mareel' on 16th April and it is hoped the Shetland public will show their ongoing support for the project, and its current location at the North Ness in the lead up to this decision.

For more information on, and to show your support for, 'Mareel' visit www.myspace.com/MareelShetland

For the story courtesy of the Press and Journal - Click Here

For the story courtesy of Shetland Today - Click Here

STOP PRESS - - - The HSE have quickly responded to Mr Gibbons invitation saying that they see no need to visit Shetland again with regard to the North Ness tank depot issue. A spokesperson for the HSE said that they had already fully engaged with Shetland Arts on this particular issue and saw no need to change thier current safety related stance in relation to the depot and its location.

The HSE said that they were already more than well aware of the design and all the issues surrounding the North Ness depot, its operation and operating practises, which already fell within their official jurisdiction, and that they believed that nothing more could be gained from an additional visit. As such, they maintained their current position in terms of seeking to limit the risks surrounding the plant in that respect.