COLUMN: Questions need to be asked to clarify the Freeport deal
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The Way I See It by Jim McGillivray
Timothy 1, 6:10: “The love of money is the root of all kinds of evil.” The Way I See It by Jim McGillivray
That’s not denying that money does indeed make the world go round, but the sheer greed of some of our fellow citizens causes the extreme polarisation between users of food banks and multi-billionaires. This has always been the case.
In my simple world money, properly used, can generate economic wellbeing, which in turn makes possible social wellbeing (jobs, housing, education and health provision, community infrastructure such as roads etc); cultural wellbeing (literature, music, arts, and support for minority languages); and environmental wellbeing (the turbines, solar panels and hydrogen generation we need to get to net zero to stave off the effects of global warming).
Therefore, all things being equal, I quite like economic development.
With Highland Council looking to close our fifth primary school in five years, the roll of Edderton Primary School down to single figures for the first time ever, and with one single brave pupil in Durness Primary School, we undeniably need more economic development in Sutherland.
The immediate economic development which is coming is the Cromarty Firth Freeport and we need to drill down very quickly to see how this can be used to drag jobs and investment into our communities.
The initial reports are very vague, and there are serous questions to be asked to clarify exactly what the deal comprises.
Early reports suggest a £52 million pot of UK money will be made available as start-up funding for both Cromarty and Firth of Forth, which has also been confirmed as a new Green Freeport..
This means that the maximum Cromarty Freeport will receive is £26 million, though most likely much less than this.
To put this figure in context, Highland Council’s external debt floats somewhere around £900 million, the forecast council budget deficit for 23/24 is not a kick off £48 million, and a new secondary school of any scale will need £80 million.
The Freeport start-up fund is not impressive.
I have not yet seen (January 15) clarification of the geographic area involved.
Mention has been made of an area of 45 km but whether that is a negotiable radius from the centre at Invergordon, which would involve Dornoch Firth and Kyle of Sutherland communities, or is limited to the extent of the Invergordon to Inverness axis, I have no idea.
If the latter, Dalcross Airport at 48 km from Invergordon would be outside the zone and I’m sure that’s not what’s intended.
Finally, governance and responsibility.
The Opportunity Cromarty Firth consortium lead the freeport initiative, and I would hope that efforts will be made to reach out to surrounding communities at an early stage to fully explain the ambitions of the project, the likely timescales for its evolution, and the overall business plan as it moves forwards.
At a time when all public sector funding is severely stressed, and will be for years to come, we will need to rely more and more on private sector ventures such as this to keep our rural economy alive.
Councillor Jim McGillivray represents the East Sutherland and Edderton ward.
