HEADLINE NEWS: looking back on how the Ross-shire Journal has reported Opportunity Cromarty Firth bid for green freeport status
Register for free to read more of the latest local news. It's easy and will only take a moment.
THE quest for 'transformational' freeport status has seldom been out of our headlines over the past year.
As an announcement is awaited – with the Opportunity Cromarty Firth consortium hopeful of success for Ross-shire and the wider Highlands – we look back at how the story has unfolded.
As momentum grew, more businesses and politicians threw their weight behind the Highland bid, describing it as a potential game-changer for jobs and the economy.
RELATED: Highlands on edge of major economic opportunity
What is a green freeport and what would it mean for the Highlands?
Review of Highland politics in 2022
February 2022
The UK and Scottish Governments have announced two green free ports are to be established in Scotland.
Highland Council leader Margaret Davidson endorses Opportunity Cromarty Firth bid as 'game-changer' for region.
MP Jamie Stone backs bid and calls for 'a level playing field'.
MSP Edward Mountain says a free trade zone would be 'transformational'.
March 2022
Publication of green free ports prospectus 'a milestone'
May 2022
New Highland Council leader Raymond Bremner welcomes report Cromarty Firth is the only location in Scotland able to deliver on the ambitions for offshore wind of the magnitude required in the UK Energy Security Strategy.
Roy MacGregor terms it 'one of the biggest industrial opportunties Scotland has ever had' as momentum builds for Ross-shire's place at heart of 'revolution' that could sustain thousands of jobs.
June 2022
One of Scotland’s leading offshore wind companies is joining Opportunity Cromarty Firth and supporting their green freeport bid.
OCF claims more than £2.5 billion of new private sector investment in green energy sector is at stake and push their 'compelling and logical' bid.
OCF discovered its competition as list of five hopefuls – including Clyde, Aberdeen and Peterhead, Firth of Forth and Orkney – is published.
July 2022
All three north MPs back OCF bid
Renewables industry warns politicians billions of investment and tens of thousands of jobs would be lost abroad if Cromarty Firth denied green freeport status. Roy MacGregor said failure would be 'pretty devastating'.
August 2022
Loganair backs bid revealing it would be 'significant customer' fr 'clean' fuel produced in Highlands.
Whisky maker Whyte & Mackay backs bid saying it would be one of the first users of green hydrogen.
Invergordon's South Lodge Primary School head David Hayes-Macleod said: 'I am very excited to be the head teacher in a school, in a town, where you can see this renewable energy really taking off.
September 2022
Highlands and Islands Enterprise boss Stuart Black said impact of green freeport would be proportionately greater here than anywhere else'.
October 2022
Two Scottish green freeports had been chosen but not yet revealed, Scottish Secretary Alister Jack said, strongly hinting an announcement was imminent.
December 2022
In December a national paper reported PM Rishi Sunak was due in Scotland to announce the winning bids.
Jamie Stone made another impassioned plea using the social impact of Nigg as an example. He said: 'When the yards at Nigg and Kishorn in Ross and Cromarty opened, we saw large-scale housing developments—private housing and social housing—in my home town of Tain, in Alness and in the village of Balintore. Without that part of infrastructure called employment, it ain’t going to work, folks, I am afraid.'
There's a been a lot of talk, plenty of hype and bold claims. Are YOu as excited about the prospect of a green freeport centred on Ross-shire? Leave a comment here or email newsdesk@hnmedia.co.uk
