Rennie puts questions to minister over Lower Melville Wood fire

North East Fife MSP Willie Rennie has today written to the new community safety minister, Kirsten Oswald MSP, to raise more than a dozen questions about the Lower Melville Wood fire and how the incident was handled. He has also called for a public meeting to discuss the future of the site.

Following the major fire which broke out at the Lower Melville Wood waste processing and transfer facility three weeks ago, Willie Rennie has written to the Scottish Government’s new community safety minister to raise a number of questions which have been raised with him by people in the area around the fire who have been worst affected, and which he wants to be addressed by an investigation into the fire.

These questions include:

• What was the initial cause of the fire?

• Why was the fire able to spread across the compartments to the neighbouring waste when those compartments were designed to stop spread?

• Did other fires on the site in recent months trigger an upgrade to fire prevention measures?

• Why was there so much waste stored on the site?

• Why was the fire judged to be level one?

• Why was it not felt necessary to have local, mobile air quality monitors?

He has also questioned the communications to local people throughout the incident, which he described as ‘poor’.

Willie Rennie said:

“The fire was a major incident and I am grateful to the emergency services and other staff who have been involved in dealing with it. It has been difficult, methodical work to contain the fire and dowse a large volume of smouldering material. While I have tried to get answers for local people, I believed that the focus should be on dealing with the incident.

“However, now that the emergency services have returned the site to Cireco, I want to turn to an investigation into this incident. This needs to be carried out thoroughly and robustly but also as quickly as possible. Local people also believe that it should be carried out independently.

“Throughout the fire many of the people living closest to it - the people who were hit hardest by smoke, exacerbated medical conditions, and road closures - felt that they were left in the dark, without clear communications from the authorities dealing with this incident. They are looking for explanations and assurances, and they deserve to get them.

“That is why I have written to the Scottish Government to set out what I believe needs to be included in the investigation. I have also made clear that there needs to be a public meeting to address these issue directly with the local communities.”