VisitScotland and other reputable tourism groups such as North Highlands Tourism have identified and promoted the purity of the air as one of the major attractions of visiting the Scottish Highlands – I cannot therefore understand how the dumping of a smelly and toxic incinerator in our scenic and historic region can do anything but harm the public image of our town and neighbouring communities – and detract from all the hard work that has been carried out by groups such as the Invergordon Tourism Alliance, Off the Wall Mural Trail and Invergordon Environment Group over the past years.

Invergordon is the gateway for more than 60,000 cruise liner visitors and crew per year, winning the Best Port Welcome and the prestigious Highlands and Islands Community Tourism awards in recent years.

The revenues earned by the whole of the Highland Council region could be put at risk if the image of the cruise operators chosen port of call and surrounding countryside is marred by incinerator worries.

There is work in progress to create a Cromarty Firth Northshore micro tourism region, encompassing the communities of Evanton, Alness, Invergordon and Saltburn, in an effort to capture much needed and potentially lucrative revenue from tourists visiting our pristine woodlands, shores and friendly towns. I do not envisage any meaningful revenue streams from the handful of school groups that an incinerator may host and certainly not a single coachload of cruise ship passengers, clambering to tour a waste disposal plant!

I find the biased efforts of Platform PR creating bizarre press headlines unwelcome. What will be next — behind the scenes lobbying of current Highland Councillors in a bid to force through their objectives, without the support of the local community?!

It is difficult enough for local communities to make their voices heard – more so when they have to fight professional PR spin doctors, funded by big business fat cats – in this case CPH, the applicant for planning permission of the Invergordon incinerator.

Malcolm Harrison, Co-Chair Invergordon Tourism Alliance, 74 High Street, Invergordon.

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