Today’s debate is indeed timely, for it is being held against the backdrop of new Department of Energy and Climate Change figures showing that Scotland’s renewable energy generation in the first half of 2014 was 30 per cent higher than in the same period in 2013, and that the overall increase is due primarily to a 50 per cent increase in hydro generation.
It is surely a source of great pleasure and pride in the Parliament that Scotland is at the vanguard of the renewables revolution. It is now estimated that more than 46.4 per cent of gross electricity consumption in 2013 was met from renewables, which is up from 39.9 per cent in 2012. It is also worth noting that Scotland contributed 32 per cent of the United Kingdom’s renewable energy generation in 2013 and that Scotland continues to be a net exporter of electricity. We are, of course, on track to meet our ambitious interim target of generating 50 per cent of electricity from renewable sources by 2015.
I welcome the opportunity to acknowledge today that our leading position is due in no small part to the extent of generation from hydroelectric schemes, big and small, especially across the north of Scotland in, for example, the Lednock dam and the Glen Turret dam in Strathearn, which is the area in which I live.
In fact, Scotland has 85 per cent of the UK’s hydroelectric energy resource, much of it developed by the North of Scotland Hydro-Electric Board in the 1950s. The hydro board, as it was known, brought “Power from the Glens”. It was a nationalised industry at the time, although it was privatised in 1989 and is now part of Scottish and Southern Energy plc.
A great deal of the credit for the development in hydro power must of course go to Tom Johnston, the Secretary of State for Scotland in Churchill’s wartime coalition Government, for he had a vision of bringing power from the glens for the benefit of all. At the time, it was estimated that just one farm in six, and one croft in a hundred, had electricity. Today, virtually every home in Scotland has mains electricity.
I think that credit is well deserved, but I submit that the credit must also be shared. In preparation for the debate, I have been reading a booklet that has been produced by SSE entitled “Power from the Glens”, which I am pleased to note has been dedicated
“to the memory of the ‘Hydro Boys’ whose legacy is the largest source of renewable energy in the country.”
Whilst the SSE booklet refers to men coming from all over Scotland, and to Czechs and Poles and Germans, it makes no mention of the hundreds of Irishmen who were such an important part of the building of the hydro schemes. Concerns were raised with me about gaps in the recognition of their work, which led me to lodge the motion. I am extremely grateful for the opportunity that the debate affords me to give some well-deserved publicity to, and to bring to wider attention, the contribution of those hardy men and the sacrifices of those who gave their health or even their lives.
I will mention a constituent, John O’Donnell. He has, with others, through a very interesting Facebook group called “Memories of the Hydro Dams and Tunnels”, been putting in a power of work to share stories and songs that have, until very recently, been heard only within their own families but are well deserving of a wider audience.
I congratulate Annabelle Ewing on securing the debate and on her motion. She referred to the Pitlochry dam and fish ladder, which are an important part of the highland Perthshire economy. I think that she quoted the figure of 500,000 visitors a year. I am not sure that that is quite right; I think that 50,000 visitors a year currently visit the Pitlochry dam and that the hope is that, by spending money to improve the attraction, SSE will double that number to 100,000 visitors a year.
It is interesting that, if somebody goes to Pitlochry and sees what is now Loch Faskally, they would think that it had always been there. In fact, it was created only between 1947 and 1951, when the River Tummel was dammed and flooded an area that was previously the old Pitlochry highland games field. That created the current loch, which is, of course, used by tourists and locals for fishing and boating, and has become an accepted part of the local landscape.
I congratulate my colleague Annabelle Ewing on lodging the motion and giving us time to debate the important matters that it raises.
Like others, I have connections with the issue, which are various. Among the many jobs that I have had, I have never worked on a hydro scheme or in a tunnel—except when I was around 10 or 11, when we used to build tunnels with a former tunneller from a Stalag Luft prisoner-of-war camp. However, that was a very different thing that is not to be compared at all with what we are talking about.
As a family, we used to camp regularly at Ardgualich farm, which is just below the Queen’s view on Loch Tummel. One of the highlights of all our visits there was the salmon ladder. My father, my brother and I were enthusiastic brown-trout fishermen, and to gaze in awe at the big brother—the salmon—was well worth doing. We aspired to catch it, but that would have required us to pay out money for a licence, or to find some other way of being able to fish for salmon, which we would not have contemplated.
The building of dams and tunnels is a substantial engineering issue. We sometimes forget how much the Victorians achieved in their engineering. For example, we should consider their achievement in building the Union canal—a topical name—which traverses the whole of central Scotland with a rise and fall of no more than 4 inches.
The Victorians, in building their tunnels, bridges and cofferdams, developed an impressive set of technologies. Some of the challenges involved in such work are quite substantial. The adiabatic lapse rate means that, for every 1,000 feet that one goes down, the temperature rises by 1.98° and the barometric pressure rises by 33 millibars. In addition, one is exposed to the release of methane in underground workings. There is a wide range of natural challenges, to which we can add the challenge that Richard Simpson mentioned: the dust from such work is perfectly contained in a closed environment for those who are working to inhale, to the substantial detriment to their health.
When the Lednock tunnel tigers tunnelled 557 feet in a week, it was a huge achievement. They were able to do that perhaps because the rock in the area through which they were tunnelling was comparatively soft, but that would increase the risk of roof fall and people being killed as a result. It is unlikely that the tunnellers were drilling through granite at that rate of knots. However, those are formidable achievements that we can admire from a distance.
Like other members, I have a connection with the benefits of electricity. My wife lived in a council house a mere 6 miles out on the main road down to Fort William from Inverness, and was at secondary school before the household got electricity. It came, of course, from the work of the hydro. To this day, the very large oil lamp that used to illuminate my wife’s house and by which she did her early studying when she was at school adorns our living room. It is a very impressive piece of kit, at about two and a half feet tall.
The Irish and other workers—including Dr Simpson, as we now know—achieved much in building our dams and tunnels and contributing to our having one of the most green sources of electricity quite early in the development of the idea that that was a good thing. More fundamentally, getting electricity into the hills and glens is a substantial achievement that I am delighted that we are able to celebrate today. I look forward to visiting the new facilities, which will tell the tale again in a modern context and perhaps redress the omission, in particular, of the Irish navvies and the others who made such a big contribution.
12:53
I congratulate Annabelle Ewing on bringing this important matter to the chamber, and I thank all members who have contributed to the debate.
Annabelle Ewing and Dr Richard Simpson both mentioned the pivotal role of the great Tom Johnston and the leadership and vision that he demonstrated. As Secretary of State for Scotland, he ran Scotland as though it were a de facto independent country, such was his untrammelled ability to drive things forward. That is an unexpected historical precedent.
Last year, many of us—including Murdo Fraser—celebrated the 70th anniversary of the Hydro Electric Development (Scotland) Act 1943 and the enormous role that Tom Johnston played in that story. We reflected on the fact that delivering on his vision for those civil engineering projects—the dams and hydroelectric schemes—required, as Annabelle Ewing stressed, toil and labour of a severity that I suspect is beyond our imaginings these days.
Therefore, it is absolutely correct that we take the time to recognise the massive contribution of the workers who handed Scotland a legacy of large-scale renewable energy provision that, as was remarked on, continues to generate electricity to this day successfully and effectively.
The legacy was also of enormous benefit to the north of Scotland, where I have the privilege of representing a constituency. In 1945, only half the homes in the Highlands had access to electricity. By 1960, that had increased to 90 per cent due to large-scale hydro developments giving more than 200,000 households access to modern comforts.
The scale of the construction work is indeed impressive. Between 1945 and 1965—in just 20 years—78 dams were built, 2,000 miles of tunnel were excavated and 20,000 miles of electricity network was established. We divide time into before Christ and anno domini, but I suspect that civil engineers, were they to look for a classification of time, would use the initials BR—before regulators existed. Tom Johnston was not unduly hampered by heritage or environment regulators. He got on with the job, and what a magnificent legacy has been left to the country thereby.
At the peak, more than 12,000 people were employed, with the workers coming from a great many countries. People from Ireland and prisoners of war and displaced persons from Germany, Italy, Poland and Czechoslovakia joined squads of native Highlanders—many, including Richard Simpson, had never before been paid such high wages. The workers, known as the hydro boys, had to work in remote locations and in dangerous conditions.
I should say that, from discussions today with SSE, I know that it is absolutely determined to emphasise and recognise the contribution of all workers, including Irish workers, whose contribution was remarked on by Mary Scanlon and Annabelle Ewing. That will be dealt with in visitor books and on sites. I am happy to clarify that point. I am also happy to pay tribute to SSE for its work in producing the booklet “Power from the Glens”, in which I think Gillian O’Reilly of SSE had a role to play, and to Emma Wood for her 2005 book, “The Hydro Boys: Pioneers of Renewable Energy”, which certainly merits a read because, through it, we can see the huge dangers of the work.
I am grateful that Dr Simpson contributed to the debate and reminded us of the importance of health and safety. In various roles, I have been involved in health and safety in relation to the oil and gas industry and the coal mining industry. I remember reading social history about the coal mining industry and being struck by the appalling cruelty to workers, including young children, especially in the 19th century. Disaster after disaster happened before legislative reform took place and it was always too little, too late. As I listened to Richard Simpson, it occurred to me that perhaps our understanding and appreciation of social history is, in a sense, the very best compulsitor to drive forward our focus on health and safety legislation right now.
When I met Lord Cullen this summer, he remarked vis-à-vis the 25th anniversary of Piper Alpha that, in Macondo, BP perhaps forgot to be afraid. Therefore, the social history that Annabelle Ewing has brought to the chamber plays an important role.
Of course, hydroelectric power has an important role, and we are all, I think, keen for it to continue. At present, however, we are concerned that a defect in the hydro feed-in tariff subsidy, which we have been raising with the United Kingdom Government for more than a year now, is a serious threat to the industry. We hope that, working together, that can be rectified before the year is out.
Murdo Fraser was correct to draw attention to the tourism benefits, which have been mentioned by all speakers. The proposal to upgrade the SSE visitor centre at the Pitlochry dam and salmon ladder is welcome. The dam is a marvellous example of how civil engineering can protect the environment, and the fact that it has half a million visitors a year shows the interest that exists in the matter.
Hydroelectricity is one of the great industrial and economic success stories in Scotland. All too often, while correctly recognising the leadership role that Tom Johnston and others played, we neglect to remember the efforts of the workers who actually delivered the schemes. It is therefore with great pleasure that I say to Annabelle Ewing, who is, if I may say so, my sister—
There may be a typo in the SSE booklet, which it might want to address. SSE referred to a figure of 500,000 visitors per annum. Perhaps there will be clarification on that; we will wait and see.
Younger sister.
I thank Annabelle Ewing for mentioning the Irishmen, particularly in regard to those who came from Donegal. My mother’s two brothers, who were called O’Donnell, worked on the dams in Perthshire and the Highlands throughout the 1950s.
For personal reasons that I will explain in a moment, I particularly welcome the debate, which Annabelle Ewing has obtained. I concur with her that it was the vision of Tom Johnston as Secretary of State for Scotland during the second world war that led to the creation of the Scottish hydro board, which he then chaired. Among other things, it developed the Pitlochry fish ladder and dam between 1947 and 1951. It dammed the River Tummel to form Loch Faskally, which is some 5km long.
I thank Mary Scanlon. Her own family’s contribution to the building of the dams is now on the record, and rightly so.
By the time major hydro development ended in the mid-1960s, Scotland could boast 56 dams, connected by over 600km of rock tunnel, aqueducts and pipelines. At its peak there were more than 12,000 people working on dams and tunnels.
The history of the building of those dams and the tunnels that are associated with them is extremely interesting. There are fascinating stories, like that of the tunnel tigers who worked on the St Fillans section of the Breadalbane hydroelectric scheme and who, back in 1955, set a world record by tunnelling 557 feet in seven days. It was hard, dangerous work; a number of men tragically lost their lives and countless others were injured or carried the effects of the work for the rest of their lives.
I have already alluded to the fact that the men came from all over to work in the tunnels and on the dams: Poles, Czechs, Highlanders and huge numbers of Irishmen—from Donegal and other places, as we have heard—came to live in the camps and work on the hydro schemes. Many of them stayed, and their descendants are at the heart of communities across many parts of Scotland, including Strathearn, which is in my part of the world.
There is little wonder that it is a real bone of contention for those whose fathers and grandfathers worked in the tunnels that, inexplicably, some of the public visitor information boards at SSE sites compound the omission in the booklet that I referred to earlier by listing several nationalities who worked in the tunnels, but make no reference to Irishmen. A decent memorial to all those who worked on the schemes and accurate public information at all the dams is surely not a big ask. I feel confident that SSE will be amenable to what amounts to a bit of tidying up of its corporate history.
There are very welcome signs that we are pushing at an open door. Indeed, not long after I first lodged the motion, Gillian O’Reilly, who is head of heritage and community programmes at SSE, said on the SSE website that
"We are enormously proud of our hydro heritage and have recently undertaken a project to understand and share the amazing stories of people and engineering feats that provided power—often to many remote areas—throughout Scotland. Our plans for a new Visitor Centre in Pitlochry will provide a fitting memorial to those who worked on the projects and we will continue to work with local historians, stakeholders and colleagues to determine the best way to do this."
In the past, official histories and visitor information have tended to focus on the engineering achievements rather than the contribution that was made—and the human cost that was paid—by the workers. That needs to be addressed. We invite people to marvel at the hollow mountains and the great dams, and many do so. For example, the Pitlochry dam and salmon ladder attracts some 500,000 visitors annually; people from around the world go to see it. Let us also invite them to remember the men who swung the pick and set the charge.
I am extremely pleased to note that SSE appears to be so amenable to ensuring that that is done. It would be helpful if the Scottish Government would confirm its support.
I suggest that anyone who has stories to tell should contact SSE directly to ensure that this living history is not lost. The campaign deserves everyone’s support. I am sure that we can all recognise the huge debt of gratitude that we owe to those whose efforts brought us the power from the glens that we take so much for granted today.
12:39
Okay. We will no doubt get the resolution to that at some point after the debate.
The impact of the hydroelectric schemes is obvious to all who travel around Perthshire or the Highlands. An important part of them is how they have become an accepted part of the landscape and how they are used to attract visitors. The information boards to which Annabelle Ewing referred are an important part of that.
Hydroelectricity in the Highlands has an interesting history. The very first scheme was built by the monks at Fort Augustus abbey in 1890. That was an 18kW scheme to power the organ and provide street lighting to the village, which then had 800 people. Reputedly, the lights in the village dimmed when the organ was played, because there was not enough power for both.
Throughout the 1930s and in the 1940s and 1950s, there was, of course, a huge expansion in hydroelectric power across the area.
I was very interested to hear Richard Simpson’s recounting of his experiences at Cruachan. I visited the Cruachan tunnel some years ago. It is an extremely impressive piece of engineering.
Mary Scanlon mentioned her family connection to the tunnels and dams. I, too, have a connection: my father, in his younger days as a mechanical fitter, worked on the Glascarnoch dam in Ross-shire. I am not quite sure whether he followed quite the same political path that Richard Simpson followed as a result of his experience working at Glascarnoch, but men from across Scotland and many other parts of the British isles and the world worked with him. It was very hard work. As Richard Simpson said, the conditions were different from conditions today; there was nothing like the level of health and safety that we would see on a modern site. We should celebrate the fact that conditions have improved for workers on such sites.
Annabelle Ewing referred in her motion to the tunnellers at Lednock. Reflecting on the most recent large-scale hydroelectric scheme at Glendoe near Fort Augustus in the Highlands, which was constructed by SSE, perhaps makes how much was achieved more remarkable. That scheme was operational only for a matter of months before there was a large roof cave-in. It was then offline for more than a year, and the tunnel had to be redug as a result. It is remarkable that none of the tunnels that was built in the 1950s and 1960s seems to have gone through the same turmoil that our more recent construction at Glendoe went through just a few years ago.
I agree with the sentiments that have been expressed in the debate. Wherever they came from, the workers who contributed to the development of the industry in Scotland and created not just a legacy of power, but a legacy that is very important to tourism, should be celebrated. I support Annabelle Ewing’s ambitions for a proper memorial.
12:48
—that I am very pleased that she has brought forward this opportunity for us to remember, celebrate and recognise the huge benefits that the hydro workers brought in leaving Scotland a wonderful legacy.
13:01 Meeting suspended.
Mr Simpson, will you please pull up your microphone a little?
Is that better?
Yes.
I apologise.
The hydro board introduced the salmon ladder, which was an important innovation that acknowledged the environmental aspects of such creations.
I am particularly pleased about the debate because I want to talk a little about Cruachan power station, where I worked. As a student, I had looked around for employment whose remuneration would make it worth while to undertake it, and that was the best offer that I got. Three of us students were among those who joined many Irishmen—as Annabelle Ewing said—in constructing the station. We worked deep underground and we often had to go back up to the face to drill when the dust was still in our faces.
What that work impressed on me most was the fact that health regulations—they were pretty primitive at the time—were not being observed. Going down to that job daily for many hours converted me, as someone from an extremely conservative family, into a socialist. At that point, I believed that the protection of workers was fundamental, and it has been fundamental to my entire political career.
Every weekend, when we emerged from the underground of Cruachan power station, we had buzzing in our ears, which lasted the whole weekend. I have had tinnitus ever since then.
When I confronted a senior person at the works with the fact that they were not looking after the workers’ health in the way that they should, and when I said that the inspectors would not be pleased, I was told, “Don’t worry—they have to give us 48 hours’ notice. We’ll get everything right by the time of an inspection.” I will not name the company involved, which is very good now and which has developed well because of health and safety regulations.
Of the three of us students, one jacked in the job—that was what was said in those days—within two weeks, because he could not tolerate it. That was partly because he often worked in the wet well up to mid-calf in water, and because he could not tolerate the noise. Another one of us, who was a theology student from the University of St Andrews, tried to hold prayer meetings. I tried to form a trade union and I got sacked.
Annabelle Ewing’s pertinent motion has brought back my memories. I honour the men who were involved.
The driller to whom I was an assistant and whose place I took after four weeks left to go to the Clyde tunnel. It might surprise people to know that he left because working there was safer than working at Cruachan, although it was under pressure and there was a risk of getting the bends. Thirty-six men died in the construction at Cruachan; my parents were terrified that I might be killed. The vertical shaft was extremely dangerous to work in. The Clyde tunnel was also difficult. It was wet and the bends were always a risk. Some people suffered from that, but only two men died.
We owe a great debt to the tunnellers and constructors and I am proud that Annabelle Ewing has lodged the motion. I hope that some of the memories will interest SSE and might be incorporated in revised information at visitor centres, which are important to our tourism.
12:44
The next item of business is a members’ business debate on motion S4M-10672, in the name of Annabelle Ewing, on remembering the contribution of those who built the dams and tunnels. The debate will be concluded without any question being put.
Motion debated,
That the Parliament notes plans by Scottish and Southern Energy to develop a new state-of-the-art visitor centre at Pitlochry Dam and salmon ladder; recognises the contribution that this and other hydroelectric dams and tunnels throughout Scotland can make as tourist attractions as well as their primary function contributing to Scotland’s renewable electricity generation; respects the contribution made by the men, of many nationalities, who built the dams and tunnels, such as the Lednock “Tunnel Tigers”, who set a world record by tunnelling 557 feet in seven days in 1955 while working on the St Fillans section of the Breadalbane Hydro-Electric scheme; further recognises that this was hard, dangerous work and that a number of men lost their lives and countless others experienced injury or illness that affected them for the rest of their lives; understands that some of the public visitor information boards list several nationalities of workers in the tunnels but make no reference to Irish workers, and looks forward to the new visitor centre properly reflecting the contributions of all of the men who built the dams and tunnels.
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