Braer 'inaction' attacked

NOTHING has been done by the Government to improve shipping safety following the Braer disaster exactly a year ago, according to Jim Wallace, Liberal Democrat MP for Orkney and Shetland.

He told a conference in Lerwick yesterday that the Government had 'learnt nothing and done nothing'. Compared with the speedy response of the emergency services and the Shetland community on 5 January last year, the response of the Government in dealing with some of the fundamental issues of shipping safety had been 'culpably slow'. Mr Wallace vowed that if the findings of the Marine Accident Investigation Branch inquiry and the inquiry by Lord Donaldson left questions about the grounding unanswered he would renew calls for a public inquiry.

He said, the Government had refused to hold a public inquiry; the MAIB had failed to publish a report; the Department of Transport had declined to install radar or make arrangements for surveillance around Shetland's coast.