I realise that my previous post may not ring bells with some of my newer readers. The Arnish Fabrication Yard, a site of heavy engineering industry, is located south of Stornoway, within sight of my current location. It started life in 1975 as a place where oil-rigs were assembled for the North Sea. Following a down-turn in the oil industry, the yard was mothballed, until last year.
A subsidy of £20 million ($10 million) was handed to the operators, Camcal (an offshoot of a previous occupant, Cambrian Engineering), to set up a site where units for renewable energy projects would be manufactured. I am talking about windturbine towers and wave power energy modules. One hundred workers were taken on, and things were looking good by July 2006, when three orders were on the book.
Arnish was said to have a brilliant future. Two windfarms are in the pipeline for the island of Lewis, one with 190 turbines (spread linearly over a distance of 40 miles, that's one 450 ft tower every 200 yards), another with 53 in the distant southeast of Lewis.
Well, it was not to last.
Camcal suddenly announced it had encountered 'cashflow' problems, and was laying off its entire 100 strong workforce. The work that was still being done would be shipped overseas for completion, and the Yard was to be put on a care-and-maintenance basis, pending a take-over by a third party.
Today's announcement is the next stage in this drama, which will leave local traders licking their wounds. Again.
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