TALKS continue in the fight to save Vestas Celtic’s wind turbine tower factory at Machrihanish, which its parent company intends to close with a loss of more than 90 jobs.
Argyll and Bute Council has called another meeting today (Friday) to meet with politicians, Highlands and Islands Enterprise, Scottish Development International, unions and management at the Kintyre factory. Jim Mather MSP and the unions will report on their meetings with Vestas. The meeting is not open to the press.
Mr Mather, as the constituency member for Argyll and Bute and in his role as Minister for Enterprise, Energy and Tourism was one of those who met with representatives of the firm’s Danish parent company in Glasgow last week.
Mr Mather said the talks were ‘frank and constructive,’ and added that there were ‘plans for further dialogue.
Tavish Scott, the newly elected the company. He was accompanied by Alan Reid MP for Argyll and Bute and George Lyon, the former MSP for the constituency who is now fighting the European elections for the party.
Mr Scott said: ‘When we met with local freight businesses, Peter McKerral, who has business with Vestas, made a very strong argument. Having to travel longer distances and the cost of doing business in this area is high.’
‘These industries are an important part of the local economy. This is a fantastic part of Scotland and is a huge asset; we need to do a lot more.
‘My aim today is to understand what we can do with both transport links and jobs and then to take them back to Parliament and hope to help all our efforts to move forward.’
Mr Reid said: ‘Every option must be explored to save the almost 100 jobs at the Campbeltown factory. Scottish Ministers and senior officials must fly to Denmark as a matter of urgency and do their utmost to persuade Vestas top management to keep their Campbeltown factory open. This meeting must take place straight away, because, if the Scottish Government fails to persuade Vestas to stay in Campbeltown, there will not be much time left to attract another renewable energy company to come here before some of the highly skilled workers leave the area to find work.’
This was a theme Mr Reid pursued at the meeting on Friday of the Kintyre Initiative Working Group, which was also attended by Jamie McGrigor, Highlands and Islands MSP.
Mr McGrigor wants to know what went wrong. He said: ‘We need to find out why Vestas has failed and doesn’t want to go on here. Until we know what caused this it will be difficult to ask other people to come in.’
