A how-to guide to making a pre-application objection

Pre-application objection "how-to"

If you object to the proposals by Loch Long Salmon for a salmon mega-farm at Lurignish on Loch Linnhe, as presented at their Pre-Application Consultation meetings, we recommend that you pass your concerns to them in writing, whether electronically or on paper.

Lodging your written concerns is important as the developers are required to address the feedback they receive from the Consultation meetings in a report which they include with their formal planning application. With over a thousand local people having joined the campaign to object, this is an opportunity to make it clear that local feelings are not in favour of this proposal.

By email: info@lochlongsalmon.com

Include “For attention of Mark Shotter” in the subject line.

By letter: send to Mark Shotter, 10 York Place, Edinburgh, EH1 3EP.

Concerns should reach the developer before 7th November.

Note that, at this early stage, your comments are not official objections - the opportunity to object formally comes later when the developer submits the planning application to Argyll & Bute council.

Writing your letter or email

There are no formal requirements, however we recommend:

- Include your name and address

- Be clear that your letter/email relates to the proposed fish farm at Lurignish on Loch Linnhe

- If sending an email, ask for (and keep) an email confirming receipt

- If you are happy to do so, send a copy to your local Councillor and/or your MSP (see below for online directories of Councillors and MSPs)

- Be polite and as concise as possible

- Try not to be too emotional - only factual concerns will be considered by the Council in assessing the application once it is submitted.

Write about your concerns about this proposed development

To help you to compose your letter we have listed our major concerns below - there are more details in our FAQ. However it’s your letter, you may well have other concerns too, so write in your own words. It's important to express your own concerns for them to be taken in to account - do not copy and paste what we have listed below.

Our major concerns are:

- This industrial development (potentially the largest fish farm in Scotland with significant onshore supporting equipment) is inappropriate for the location. This is an otherwise pristine stretch of loch shore, in an area widely used for recreation on and off the water, which is not zoned for development and is immediately adjacent to a National Scenic Area.

- The proposed new “semi-closed” technology has seen multiple failures when used elsewhere and nothing on this scale has been tried in Scotland. A failure risks being catastrophic for the loch environment - including the known wild salmon run - and its many users.

- Even if the new technology works as well as forecast, the residual solid and liquid waste entering the loch at one location would place enormous pressure on the environment.

- The proposed farm packs fish together so tightly that this causes stress, damages their skin and can lead to rapid spread of disease.

- The many heavy goods vehicles required for feed, oxygen, and transport of waste will be an added burden and danger on the A828, especially as they travel through neighbouring villages.

- The potential impacts - views from land and sea, smell and noise - from an industrial site that will have to function 24/7 will have a big negative impact on local communities.

‍