Orkney and Shetland MP, Alistair Carmichael has today written to the UK Treasury and Secretary of State for Scotland Jim Murphy MP asking for an urgent meeting regarding reports last week that the Crown Estate has postponed the announcement for seabed leases in the Pentland Firth to February/March 2010.

The Crown Estate has repeatedly postponed its schedule for naming the successful companies and blames the latest delay on the ‘high quality’ of the competing bids.

Commenting, Mr Carmichael said -

“I am seeking an urgent meeting between highland and island MP’s and the Treasury Minister responsible for the Crown Estate to un-jam this process. It is bluntly unacceptable that a body such as the Crown Estate should be allowed to jeopardise what is probably our most important opportunity for developing future technology. I have always been of the view that for the Crown Estate to hold this sort of influence over island and coastal communities is constitutional and organisational madness. This latest instance simply goes to prove my case.”