Safety target

I am deeply saddened that T in the Park has been driven out of Balado by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) (your report, 26 June).

It doesn’t help that the offending pipeline was built and operated by BP, a company with a certain reputation. Refinery disasters and Deepwater Horizon, don’t engender confidence.

That said, it has been in the ground, incident-free, since the 1970s. So what’s changed? 
Apparently little.

The pipeline is well maintained, the festival is well run. This year, however, everything has a political hue, including T’s enforced departure.

The fact that the HSE should decide that risk is now no longer the measure by which it makes its judgments, instead choosing the hazard the pipeline poses, is beyond me.

It says the hazard is so great that Balado cannot be used, not just for T, but for anything, even modest gatherings. This is ridiculous.

Scotland lives with a far 
greater hazard than any pipeline could possibly create – a hazard so enormous that those in Westminster have sited it far away from them. It is the British nuclear deterrent. The risk of an incident may be very small but it exists.

The hazard to Scotland is quite simply the total destruction of everyone and everything. So why is the HSE not taking action? It can’t. This is another reason to vote Yes with a twofold benefit. Firstly, we evict the hazard, not the people.

Secondly, we get the chance to have our own HSE and bring some sense to this farce. It’s too late for Balado but it isn’t for Scotland.

Marek Mozolowski

Sandport

Kinross