One-sided inquiry

Published on Thursday 9 July 2009 20:41

Your report (1 July) that the Scottish Parliament's economy, energy and tourism committee has said the Beauly-Denny electricity transmission line must go ahead as soon as possible is no surprise since, in its year-long inquiry, it took evidence on transmission only from organisations that agreed with this – mainly the power companies.

It refused to take evidence from Sir Donald Miller (ex-chairman of Scottish Power), Colin Gibson (a previous member of National Grid's board) and the John Muir Trust, all of whom have been extensively involved in examining the case for the line.

Since the committee found it had no time to listen to these alternative views, it would be interesting to know how many hours it managed to find to meet with industry lobbyists within and outwith the committee.

The committee system at the Scottish Parliament is supposed to be the safeguard against poor decision-making by the executive arm of government. There is a serious question about whether, in some cases, committee members are mostly following the party whip rather than giving serious independent thought to major issues.

Some people believe the decision-making process on electricity generation and transmission is the next big scandal, after the banks. There is no doubt that the public's interest is not being best served, by the UK or Scottish governments, in the shambles that is our energy "policy".

HELEN McDADE

Head of policy, John Muir Trust

Pitlochry, Perthshire