THERE is no doubt that the flaring from Mossmorran during the current turnaround session is casting quite a shadow over the Cowdenbeath-Lochgelly area.

The turnaround is where the Fife Ethylene Plant staff shut down the ethane cracker to carry out key maintenance work but by the nature of the process any feedstock coming to the plant during this has to be burned off and hence the intense flaring.

There have been complaints about noise from the flaring process for some years and the Scottish Environment Protection Agency have monitored what is going on.

The pressure being mounted by local community campaigner James Glen has again brought SEPA to the the table and they have been interviewing people who have aired concerns.

So without doubt the matter is very much in the public eye in more than one way and hopefully this will mean that problems can be dealt with in a satisfactory manner.

The homes in Cowdenbeath and Lochgelly closest to the Mossmorran complex have always suffered the biggest impact from flaring so the residents there will have found this recent turnaround a testing experience but hopefully if SEPA find any reason for some action to ease these it will be done swiftly.