Press Release
Total negotiations almost complete - Council praise for staff
Councillors heard this morning that the current negotiations with Total for acquiring land adjacent to the Sullom Voe Oil terminal for their gas plant were nearing completion.
Although the broad principles underpinning the deal were agreed by Council at their meeting on 18th March much of the important detail involved with health and safety and environmental protection issues have taken until now to complete. Both Total and the Council's teams have been working extremely hard to get the deal finalised although some elements remain to be moulded into a final shape.
However, today's report from the Depute Chief Executive asked members to note that the deal was now close to completion and that indeed it should be capable of being signed off quite soon. Once the lease is signed off it will be registered in the Registers of Scotland and thus become a public document. Only after the lease has been sent for registration will the Council be able to discuss its content in public.
Councillors said that they wanted to recognise the huge amount of work that has gone on to make the deal possible.
Council Convener Sandy Cluness said, “The Council set up a Negotiating Team which has met regularly over the past months. Without their energy and expertise, we wouldn’t have been able to move this deal along. So, as a Council, this morning we decided we wanted to recognise publicly the efforts of the Council team but in particular Graham Johnston, (Head of Finance), Neil Grant (Head of Economic Development) and Paul Wishart (Principal Council Contact). Janet Barclay of the Planning Service also deserves praise for her hard work dealing with the planning application”.
Today's meeting was the last time the full Council meets to discuss the Total deal, although work continues for the Team to pull the final pieces together and move towards formal signing and registration.