Seafield Envrionmental Group

Funding secured for artwork

Rohan Cragg — Sun, 26 Sep 2010 19:08:04 GMT

Seafield Environmental Group have secured funding to create a piece of art work inspired by Seafield beach to echo Fife’s year of celebrating Fife in 2010.

Having gathered ideas and inspiration from volunteers at this September’s Beachwatch beach clean, we will be commissioning a local artist to create a work of art incorporating found materials from the beach and all of the ideas from our volunteers.

We’ll post more details here once we know when and where we’ll be siting the art work for visitors to the beach to enjoy.

Volunteer Centre Fife

Rohan Cragg — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 13:02:05 GMT

Volunteer Centre Fife have information on hundreds of volunteering opportunities throughout Fife.

They have a website which you can use to search for voluntary work or to find information on volunteering, they also offer free training for voluntary groups.

Take a Pride in Fife

Rohan Cragg — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 12:39:24 GMT

Is there a local area near you that you would like to take action to improve?

It's really easy to get involved with a local community clean up and make a real difference to your local environment.

If you get in touch with them, Fife Council’s Environmental Services Department will deliver and collect all of the materials you’ll need as well as removing all the litter you collect. Your group can be provided with:

black bags
skips (if you require)
litter-pickers
gloves
liability Insurance

You can find lots more information, including the necessary application form for insurance cover and some safety guides on the FifeDirect website here.

Beachwatch Cleanup 2010

Rohan Cragg — Sat, 05 Jun 2010 15:00:32 GMT

Please join us for a clean-up of Seafield Beach and help to support The Marine Conservation Society in their annual Beachwatch campaign. You’ll have a great time!

We’ll be meeting at Seafield Picnic Area at 11am on Saturday 18th September 2010.

The clean-up generally takes an hour or two but you can stay as long as you wish - once you get started grabbing up the litter from the sand you won’t be able to stop yourself, it’s really addictive! :-)

Refreshments will be provided; youngsters need to be accompanied by a parent.

Please remember to wear appropriate clothing and footwear.

Directions

Seafield Beach can be accessed via the Fife Council picnic area off Seafield Road (turn right before you get to the (now closed) B&Q DIY store).

You can get there via a regular bus route (No. 7 bus from Kirkcaldy bus station – stance 13).

If you’re coming from further afield, Kirkcaldy also has a major train station which is only a 2 minute walk from the bus station, or 15 minutes from the Seafield end of town.

The Beach from Google StreetView:

View Seafield Beach in a larger map

Spring Clean volunteers bask in glory

Rohan Cragg — Sun, 25 Apr 2010 12:14:00 GMT

Volunteers at the Spring Clean this Saturday enjoyed glorious spring weather as they scoured the beach and dunes, achieving yet another impressive haul.

On first arriving at the beach we were pleasantly surprised at the apparent lack of obvious litter visible from our base at the SEPA notice board. However it didn’t take long for our intrepid volunteers to find some serious litter black-spots at each end of the Beach.

The Tiel Burn (or perhaps the near-by Esplanade) seem to be one major a source of incoming litter to Seafield Beach.

The other major source of the more unusual items we find is the erosion of the sea-grass dunes which is continually revealing the copious amounts of construction waste carelessly dumped below the surface of the car-park – presumably during the construction of the housing estate at Seafield?

As usual we also found plenty of maritime-related waste either fallen or thrown from fishing boats or cargo ships.

We worked extra-hard to salvage recyclable items such as plastic bottles and glass from the collection.

You can view a slideshow of photos from all of our past cleanup events below:

A big thank-you once again to all those volunteers show turned up to support the event, and to Dominos Pizza and Greggs the Bakers for food treats on the day.

Beachwatch 2009 reveals more plastic than ever

Rohan Cragg — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 12:33:00 GMT

The UK’s biggest beach clean-up this year again saw Seafield Environmental Group contributing our results to the national survey. The report published last week has shown that the rubbish littering our coast is made up of more and more plastic as time goes on.

The national picture

Appallingly, there is now a piece of litter for every step you take along a beach in the UK. 64% of all of the litter removed during clean-ups in Autumn last year consisted of plastic items. Since 1994 recorded beach litter has increased overall by 77%, but with plastic component increasing by a staggering 121%.

Seafield statistics

At Seafield the numbers differ slightly from the national averages in that a lower percentage (40%) of all wastes were plastic but the occurrence of polystyrene (trays, cups, and smaller pieces) found have been double the national average in the last two years.

In line with the national trend our second most common find is that of crisp, lolly, and sweet wrappers.

Glass, paper, wood, and metal come next in terms of overall quantities found and all of these litter types also show up in quantities that are up to ten times the national average.

From these results Seafield would appear to have a particular problem with it’s vicinity to the town promenade (with it’s after-hours takeaways a likely source of food trays) and perhaps it’s use by irresponsible people during the evenings bringing bottles for refreshment but sadly not taking them away again.

Chair of Seafield Environmental Group (SEG), Rohan Cragg says:

“During the regular clean-up we organise here at Seafield Beach, it’s clear to see that food trays left at the site or more likely blown along from the promenade are a constant problem and get caught up in the dunes making the whole area look pretty unsightly. We also find a lot of broken glass which suggests that people are making a point of bringing bottles here and smashing them after using them rather than taking them away.

We also see pretty clear evidence that when people visit the beach in their cars they often simply sit in the car and deposit food wrappers out of the window despite there being bins provided at the site by the Council.

Nevertheless some people are making an effort to use the bins but sadly we’ve also seen evidence that the bins that are made available must overflow fairly regularly since the majority of food wrappers are found within a few metres of the bins, and so there’s probably more that the council could do in that regard to address the litter problem at Seafield.”

SEG have been in regular contact with the locality manager at Seafield and with the coastal officer responsible for beach litter and we’ll continue to highlight our findings to them whenever we can.

What can YOU do about all this litter?

Our beaches and seas are being overwhelmed with rubbish and YOU can help.

The Marine Conservation Society has asked the Government to take the lead and draw up action plans to help reduce marine litter to make our beaches safer, cleaner places for people and wildlife. We need your help NOW to keep the pressure on our leaders and help turn the tide on the litter. Sign their marine litter petition and support the campaign for clean seas and beaches.
Pass on the message! Most people don’t realise the amount of rubbish that is piling up on our beaches and the harm it’s doing. You can help today by sending our free e-postcards to your friends.
Join us for our next Spring Clean (Sunday April 24th @ 2pm) and for Beachwatch Big Weekend 2010 at a time (to be arranged) over the 18th and 19th September 2010.

You can read more about what litter we found in Beachwatch Big Weekend 2009 by downloading the Summary Report.

Read other reports and downloads...

Ship-to-ship oil transfer proposal rears its ugly head

Rohan Cragg — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 18:28:51 GMT

Furious Fife councillors look set to renew their fight against ship-to-ship oil transfers in the Firth of Forth

The most recent development in the long running campaign against ship-to-ship oil transfers is that the Maritime and Coastguard Agency have drafted new Regulations to control ship-to-ship transfers in UK waters of oil carried as cargo:

Consultation on draft Merchant Shipping (Ship-to-Ship Transfer) Regulations 2010

In an edition of the Fife Free Press on 11th March 2010 it was reported that furious Fife councillors will again be fighting the cause. At a meeting of the council’s environment, enterprise, and transport committee councillors voted to oppose the proposed regulations. They will take advice from a QC and will ask the agency for an extension to it’s six week consultation period, accusing the agency of trying to ‘sneak in new regulation by the back door’.

The draft regulations themselves make no mention of any concrete proposal to perform transfers in the Forth but Fife Councillors are clearly interpreting this as a prelude to an inevitable resurrection of plans that first surfaced in 2005. As of March 20th 2010 I’ve struggled to find any other coverage of this issue so far so I do feel that councillors are correct to request more time to consider changes to the Regulations.

Please read our full article explaining the history of the campaign against ship-to-ship oil transfers.

Seafield Environmental Group have contacted a number of interested parties and await their response… we’ll keep you updated on anything we hear from politicians and environmental bodies.

Update

On 23rd March 2010 Alan Wells from Scottish Environment LINK (who are an umbrella organisation for the environmental NGOs in Scotland) kindly replied to advise that RSPB, who had been leading the group of concerned environmental organisations, had made a formal reply to the consultation.

In summary, the reply to the consultation states that the group feel that the new regulations are mostly a good thing and should actually help to provide adequate safeguards but they do also have some requests for changes to the proposed regulations.

We now need to wait and see if the Agency will fully respond to the RSPB’s feedback.

Ship-to-ship oil transfers in the Forth

Rohan Cragg — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 18:22:40 GMT

As far back as 2005 news first surfaced about plans to transfer Russian crude oil between tankers moored just off the Fife coast. These plans were roundly rejected by all the relevant local authorities and environment agencies and in Fife, East Lothian and Edinburgh local Councils formed a consortium in a successful campaign to ditch the proposals. This article provides some background on the oil transfer story.

The plan conceived by Forth Ports plc (FP), a privately-owned harbour authority, and Sunderland firm, Melbourne Marine Services (MMS) was simply to boost profits by cutting corners – to save oil companies time instead of using safe terminals such as Scapa Flow. Oil multinational, Skaugen PetroTrans (SPT) stood to make millions of pounds from the oil transfers.

The operations would have involved a fleet of small tankers shuttling up to 8 million tonnes annually of heavy crude oil annually from the Russian Baltic to massive carriers at swinging anchorage just off the Fife coast at Methil.

The Firth of Forth contains many sites and species protected under international and European law. The Bass Rock and the Isle of May, world famous for their wildlife, are only a short distance from the proposed oil transfer anchorage and ironically, had just been identified by the UK government as Marine Environment High Risk Areas (MEHRAs).

A Scottish Green Party website news article from the original campaign stated that:

“Since the Donaldson report, commissioned after the Braer disaster in Orkney in 1993, there are only three sites in the UK considered suitable for ship-to-ship transfer. The Firth of Forth isn't one of them.”

A change in the law

They called for the law to be changed so that publicly-elected and accountable ministers, rather than a private company, would have the final say on all proposals for ship-to-ship oil transfers. Because of loopholes in the law, Scottish ministers had no say over the development. Instead it was solely in the hands of Forth Ports, the harbour authority with a vested interest in the plan, to assess whether it was safe.

In February 2006, the Department for Transport launched a 12-week "public" consultation exercise (via the Maritime and Coastguard Agency, MCA), on the ship-to-ship oil plans for the Forth. But many felt it was a sham of a consultation because it wasn't about whether people agree or disagree with the activity - it was simply about whether the plans to deal with an oil spill were good enough or needed revision. Confining discussion to the 'oil spill plan' failed to address the whole basis of the oil transfer project.

A confidential environmental report drawn up for the Forth Ports was heavily criticised by Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) which said that it was inaccurate and inadequate because it failed to properly assess the damage that wildlife could suffer from oil spills. These criticisms were backed by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), which described the report in a leaked letter as “inappropriate”, “misleading” and “fundamentally wrong”.

The public also made their opposition well heard, with two petitions submitted to Parliament. Other objections centred around an obvious and unacceptable conflict of interest in the harbour authority (Forth Ports plc.) being both the promoter and the regulator of the such plans. In December 2007 Mark Lazarowicz, Labour MP for Edinburgh North and Leith, launched a private member's bill aimed at plugging the loophole which had enabled ship-to-ship oil transfers to escape independent scrutiny.

Bidders pull out

Early in 2008 Forth Ports eventually announced their decision to pull out of the scheme stating that:

"Given the uncertainty surrounding the scope of the proposed project, we have decided that this application is not in the best interests of the company and its shareholders," Forth Ports chief executive, Charles Hammond.

Nevertheless the company still maintained that they had demonstrated that the ship-to-ship (STS) transfers could be carried out safely.

“This assessment clearly demonstrates that, taking into account the extremely high safety stipulations which would be placed on any vessels and the extensive support operations, STS is feasible in the Firth of Forth and could be undertaken without any adverse impact on the integrity of the environment, a paramount factor in any such exercise.”

Mr Lazarowicz ultimately withdrew his Bill when in May 2008 the UK Government published draft ship-to-ship regulations. RSPB Scotland initially welcomed the publication and were pleased that it seemed to encompass the necessary environmental safeguards, including applying the European Birds and Habitats Directive to ship-to-ship oil cargo transfers.

“The continued absence of a clear legal framework has been unhelpful to all parties, the introduction of clear ship-to-ship regulations will ensure a comprehensive and workable regime and a level playing field for all interests in oil handling operations in UK waters, and will serve to protect the UK’s coasts and marine wildlife.”

Anyone interested in the full history would be well advised to read this series of articles by Rob Edwards, a freelance journalist who has been specialising in environmental issues for over 25 years, from whose writings much of this summary has been compiled.

It still remains to be seen what impact the subsequent introduction of a Marine Bill will mean for the chances of any such plan re-emerging in the future. The Marine Bill now means that there is now a duty on ministers to protect and enhance Scotland’s seas, together with duties to deliver marine planning, environmental targets and a network of marine protected areas.

March 2010 - Fife councillors criticise new oil transfer Regulations

The most recent development in this long running saga is that the Maritime and Coastguard Agency have drafted new Regulations to control ship-to-ship transfers in UK waters of oil carried as cargo:

Consultation on draft Merchant Shipping (Ship-to-Ship Transfer) Regulations 2010

In an edition of the Fife Free Press on 11th March 2010 it was reported that furious Fife councillors will again be fighting the cause. At a meeting of the council’s environment, enterprise, and transport committee councillors voted to oppose proposed these regulations and will take advice from a QC and will ask the agency for an extension to it’s six week consultation period, accusing the agency of trying to ‘sneak in new regulation by the back door’.

The new Regulations in detail

According to MCA, the most important change, is that the scope of the legislation has been refined. The 2008 Regulations applied to transfers of any hazardous substance, whereas the new draft of the Regulations applies exclusively to cargo transfers or bunkering operations consisting wholly or mainly of oil.

Another important change, proposes an arrangement whereby a harbour authority applies to the Secretary of State for an “oil transfer licence”, and – once the licence has been granted – “cargo transfers” which are within the scope of the oil transfer licence may then be authorised by the harbour authority.

The Regulations will now make a distinction between ‘consolidation and lightening operations’ which take place in many harbour authority waters and which are distinct from the ‘ship-to-ship transfers’.In the new Regulations, these operations may take place in a harbour authority irrespective of whether it has an oil transfer licence.
Transfers on government non-commercial service have always been outside the scope of regulations. These new regulations add transfers carried out by or on behalf of a general lighthouse authority.

Additionally, there are also some ‘minor drafting changes’.

Ongoing discussion

According to a Scottish Parliament bulletin on 18th March Claire Baker has asked the Scottish Executive whether it has submitted a response to the consultation on the draft Merchant Shipping (Ship-to-Ship Transfer) Regulations 2010 and, if so, whether it will publish its response. This will be addressed in parliament on Thursday 25th March (beyond the closing date of the consultation!).

Update - 8th April 2010

I have so far heard nothing from either Claire Baker nor from the Fife Councillors I tried to contact on this matter.

However, on 23rd March 2010 Alan Wells from Scottish Environment LINK (who are an umbrella organisation for the environmental NGOs in Scotland) kindly replied to advise that RSPB, who had been leading the group of concerned environmental organisations, had made a formal reply to the consultation.

We now need to wait and see if the Agency will fully respond to the RSPB’s feedback.

I also had a reply from Rob Edwards, who at that stage was not even aware of the consultation process, which is further evidence that it was not sufficiently publicised.

The ScotLINK response in detail:

On the whole the response praises the intention of the regulations:

“the revised draft regulations that are the subject of the current consultation seem to us to be greatly improved. In particular, Schedule 1 now appears to us to include adequate safeguards for European wildlife sites, with appropriate burdens of proof in the tests required to be met before consent can be given.”

Nevertheless, they also express some notable concerns:

“There still appears to be no provision for the Secretary of State to review or withdraw a licence once granted, or to attach conditions other than maximum duration. Periodic review would appear to be a sensible measure, as would the power to withdraw a licence if the Secretary of State were to see fit”

They also question the definition of whether the term “oil transfer” in the draft regulation necessarily captures the most appropriate range of hazardous bulk liquids, and that other bulk liquids such as liquefied gas should also be covered.

Making Seafield a bit wilder

Rohan Cragg — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 09:14:29 GMT

Seafield Environmental Group are in the process of gathering information about how we might make the Seafield Beach picnic area just a little bit more wild.

Inspired by the work of the Bumblebee Conservation Trust we’d like to create our own little patches of wild meadow to enhance what is currently a rather uninteresting area of mown grass.

By creating areas of taller, more species-rich grassland we hope that this will both look more attractive and also benefit wildlife. Our initial idea is that with just one annual cut of the grass at the end of the summer, rather than a regular short mowing, the grasses will grow taller and create a better visual interest in inspire people to wander round and look at the diversity of native plants and flowers that will eventually establish.

We also hope that the project could somehow coincide with Scottish Biodiversity Week.

We’ve already found ideas for how the land could be managed:

permanent grassland mown only once per year
with available seed mixtures we could perhaps create areas of pollen and nectar rich habitat, which is known to provide valuable forage for bumblebees.
We could create ‘Beetle Banks’ which are long, grass ridges, 2m wide, which are sown with a mixture of perennial grasses and allowed to grow thick and tussocky. These provide valuable habitat for a wide variety of invertebrates and can provide perfect habitat for surface-nesting bumblebees.

Plans into Action

Our ideas would seem to be a perfect for the aims of the Fife Local Biodiversity Action Plan (LBAP), perhaps by fitting in with the new species action plan for Bees.

“Bees in the UK and elsewhere are generally in decline for a variety of reasons, not all of which are clear. It is hoped that by creating an action plan covering all of the species occurring in Fife, we will be able to raise awareness of the issues, and promote targeted action for these, most vital of insects.”

We already have interest from Robbie Blyth(Beaches & Coast Officer for Fife Council) and hope to make contact with the Countryside Rangers at Fife Coast & Countryside Trust.

We’re now in the process of getting some advice from others who’ve done the same.

Lastly we may need to look for some funding if necessary, to cover seeds, construction of fences if necessary, and perhaps ongoing maintenance.

Will it work?

Similar efforts have already been successful, such as at Callander Meadows in Stirlingshire:

“Although there were initial fears that the management regime would produce a visually unappealing monoculture of tall grass, the actual result has been a pleasing variety of grasses interspersed with attractive flowers and reactions from the general public and local community have been excellent. Visitors and local people alike have commented appreciatively about the flowers and grasses and the associated insects and butterflies which would not otherwise have been present.”

BBCT have done it on a larger scale at Vane Farm Nature Reserve near Kinross.

“It was originally a field of grass, but was ploughed and sown with a wildflower seed mix, which was kindly funded by SNH. Now in its second year, the wall-to-wall perennial wildflowers are proving to be a big hit with local bumblebee populations, which are thriving”

Friends of Baxter Park did it in Dundee

“A wildflower meadow and spring glade, planted thanks to funding from Breathing Places lottery grant.”

Save Scottish Seas

Rohan Cragg — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 19:30:15 GMT

Save Scottish Seas is an initiative of Scottish Environment LINK.

Scottish Environment LINK is the umbrella body for Scotland’s voluntary environmental organisations – 34 organisations representing approximately half a million member across Scotland.