Fife’s green woes

When I read the opinion piece “Renewables a powerful force for good” by Brian Wilson (Perspective, 5 June) I found myself nodding in agreement with his green agenda. And when he stated that our planning system is so unwieldy and deferential to big companies, he had me eating out of his hand. You see, I live in Fife and have seen the countryside of my youth ruined.

Pot-holed roads lead like spiderwebs from vast lunar-landscaped areas. Once idyllic green spaces, laid bare, denuded by powerful open-cast coal mining companies which are able to force through their greedy agenda of grabbing coal from the easiest possible sites regardless of the cost to the local and national environment and 
infrastructure. Reasonable and well argued local objections are swatted aside by these big companies, which usually have money to burn when it comes to hiring top legal opinion to fight their case.

They also have money aplenty to throw at a few cash-strapped local community projects to keep the locals and their councillors quiet.

These big companies have 
influential directors, who have the ear of central government, and are masters of public relations, publicly promising the world, while quietly delivering little or nothing.

The latest environmental disaster to befall Fife has seen one such company go burst and leave a legacy of industrial devastation that may never be put right, but which will cost the council tax payers millions.

Your correspondent should have a word with his namesake, Brian David Henderson Wilson, director of the Scottish Coal Company Ltd (in liquidation) whose company’s actions have managed to inflict more damage on Fife than the Luftwaffe in the Second World War ever did.

Tom Minogue

Victoria Terrace

Dunfermline