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A series of rows erupted around the Lingerbay Superquarry proposal this week. These followed the split last week in the Coastal Quarry Local Supporters Network, revelations about funding from Redland Aggregates for the work of the Network; and an attempt to buy SNP support for the Lingerbay superquarry which was roundly condemned by the party's prospective parliamentary candidate, Dr Anne Lorne Gillies.
The party earlier this week revealed they had been approached with an offer of £30,000 to run their Western Isles General Election campaign if they backed the Redland Aggregates development. The offer, which followed local speculation that the SNP were about to ditch their anti-quarry stance, was firmly declined and a complaint made to police in Stornoway.
And Miss Catherine Macdonald, who quit the Network last week claiming interference by Redland Aggregates, told the Gazette yesterday that the "mystery and intrigue" emerging this week had justified her decision to leave. She revealed that recently her main role as a Network member was to liaise with political parties over the superquarry issue. But last November, around the time of the first contact with the SNP by the alleged Redland agent, Miss Macdonald detected a distinct change in atmosphere in her dealings with Redland.
Whereas she had been in regular contact, suddenly the former Comhairle nan Eilean councillor for Tarbert and Bays, found herself being frozen out and her requests to the company for information drying up.
Miss Macdonald said she had been a regular attender at Network meetings in the beginning, but later found it inconvenient travelling frequently to South Harris. She remained a Network member and kept in close contact. A new role as "bridge builder" evolved for her and she was entrusted with forging links with the various political parties. "If there was going to be any approach made to these people in connection with the campaign it should have been me. But someone was getting in touch behind my back. I knew nothing about it and had no information on it," said Miss Macdonald.
In November last year, she noticed a "considerable change" in her relationship with Redland. Requests for information were going unheeded, unlike before when she could ask for data on a particular subject on a Friday and have it faxed to her first thing on a Monday morning. Her apparent snubbing by the quarry company came as a surprise.
She eventually could only conclude someone else was doing the work she had been asked to do, and she now firmly believes her decision to pull out of the Network was fully warranted. However, Miss Macdonald, a long time advocate of the superquarry, says the SNP must now clear the air by naming names.
If Redland or someone acting for for them did not approach the SNP, then who did? asks Miss Macdonald: "I think the SNP have to come clean and say who that person was. If this someone was an impostor pretending to have the authority of Redland, then they have caused a lot of trouble over it."
Original article Stornoway Gazette Mar 31 1997.
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