I’m sorry to learn of Michael Russell’s decision to retire from Parliament in May 2021. Since we first met in 2012 I have always found him available and attentive to constituency business despite the massive tasks landed on him in attempting to mitigate the effects of a Westminster government intent on economic self-destruction.
Our first meeting lasted about ten minutes, during which Michael took no notes. The following day Save Seil Sound received a detailed letter, see below, covering everything we had discussed. He has a keen intelligence and focus which will be hard to follow.
We didn’t manage to stop the expansion at Ardmaddy. Nature did that for us, as the immediate conditions on site made growing salmon there impossible; just what local residents had pointed out (second image the last cage being removed). Meanwhile the bodies who received the letter, Argyll & Bute Council, SEPA, SNH and Marine Scotland have continued to grant further permissions elsewhere in the area for tonnages far in excess of what anyone could have imagined.
Michael has long recognised that geographically Seil/Shuna/Melfort forms one large sea loch, with all the usual features of glacial cills, limited tidal flushing and water change over that has resulted in such features being protected from the effects of aquaculture. Let’s hope that in the fourteen months left to him he continues to find time to press the case.
Having retired myself after forty two years of hard work I can’t criticise anyone who wants to enjoy the liberation and opportunity that retirement brings if you do it when there’s a bit of energy left. I wish you well, Mike.
