It is time to face to the future

Once more we hear about another project to bring jobs and new technologies to Larne.

And once more, it seems that there are plenty of negative voices which try to find faults, detrimental environmental impacts or basically base their objections in being too close to populated areas.

And again, the press seems to give more publicity to all the negative views, with headlines like “Query power plan – public urged” and “readers asked objectors to come forward”.

For every person in favour, who perhaps more quietly waits for a project like Gaelectric’s to come to fruition, with the hope of more jobs to the area and a more secure and stable energy supply for Northern Ireland for the common good of all of us, there are a few more who make their objections quite clear and loud.

Gaelectric has embarked on a community consultation process comprising six consultation events, out of which last week’s was the fourth to anyone who wants to know more about the project and there were a full team of experts there to provide information and deal with queries from attended.

Have any of these so-called objectors attended any of the three events held last week in Larne, Glynn or Islandmagee? I have attended two of them myself and I do feel that they provide invaluable information for those of us who may be undecided.

Where were those objectors? I would encourage them to attend the next event before they make their minds up.

Northern Ireland is facing the stark reality that our demand for energy supply is close to outstripping the energy we produce or import.

We cannot continue to rely on the gas pipeline from Scotland. This will in not much time lead to energy shortages and even black outs.

Projects like Gaelectric take several years to plan and execute, they take a thorough approach to consultation and addressing environmental impacts, create job opportunities and encourage enterprise in our area and should not be ignored without having the full facts.