POTENTIAL rescuers of the Vestas Celtic plant at Machrihanish are ‘top of the food chain’ Jim Mather MSP told a meeting in Campbeltown on Saturday.
The workforce at Vestas who were threatened with redundancy, only to have the threat rescinded, can expect to find out their fate within the next eight weeks.
The job losses were put on hold and talks are continuing between the Scottish Government and a ‘third party’ Mr Mather said. As reported previously this third party has already signed a letter of intent, to demonstrate its real interest in taking over the factory.
Giving an update on his talks, Mr Mather continued to stick to the confidentiality demanded by Vestas into the future of the plant at Machrihanish but the MSP who is also the Minister for Enterprise, Energy and Tourism in the Scottish parliament said: ‘Scottish Development International, Highlands and Islands Enterprise and the Scottish Government are continuing dialogue and our last meeting was on Tuesday this week when we talked to the third party.’
Mr Mather said they are, ‘really serious players, top of the food chain’.
He added: ‘HIE and SDO are now working their socks off looking into what they are asking for in terms of money and investment and development.’
Mr Mather said the future for the factory was not necessarily just onshore turbines but also offshore wind and tidal were being considered for manufacture at Machrihanish.
