2018 could be another year of happenings at the Mossmorran petro-chemical site in terms of flaring.

But it has to be remembered that while 2017 was a year when significant flaring took place at the Fife Ethylene Plant, it was mainly about two incidents.

The circumstances in June and October were quite hard hitting with days of flaring and that clearly made its own contribution to the alarm from MSPs, MPs and councillors.

As has been mentioned by one of our letter writers this week these were two major incidents of flaring while for the most part there were few.

So clearly it is a case of if the plant avoids sudden shut downs in 2018 there may be little flaring and that would be welcomed by the neighbouring communities and as our letter contributor pointed out flaring costs Exxon/Mobil a lot of money.

Meanwhile the stats that show that flaring at the plant has increased four fold in ten years so some assurances from the company would be welcomed by the politicians and public.