'In Loving Memory': Elected officials deliver wreath to mark demise of Grangemouth refinery
The leader of Scotland’s Alba Party and two independent Falkirk councillors delivered a wreath and a sympathy card to the doomed Grangemouth refinery.
The wreath states: “In loving memory of Grangemouth Refinery, 1924-2025. With sympathy from Scottish Labour. Our thoughts are with Scunthorpe."
Alba party leader Kenny MacAskill, who was joined by councillors Brian McCabe and Robert Spears, said: “The ending of oil refining, after 100 years, at Grangemouth is a seminal moment.
"Scotland is now the only major oil producing nation to be without its own oil refining capacity. The workers were promised that their jobs would be safe if they voted Labour at the 2024 Election.
"The promises made have been broken and the workers at Grangemouth have been cynically cast aside. Oil refining at Grangemouth has been sacrificed while steel making at Scunthorpe has been saved.
"Scottish Labour will never be forgiven by the workers, their families and the local community for this betrayal.”
Councillor Spears added: “The workers of Grangemouth have no quarrel with the workforce at Scunthorpe but are rightly angry that their jobs were not worth saving, in the eyes of the UK Government while the plant at Scunthorpe was.
"The workers and community of Grangemouth will never trust Labour again.”
“We are seeing an economic catastrophe taking place,” said Councillor McCabe. “With far reaching social consequences for the communities and small businesses of Grangemouth and Falkirk which is all the more tragic because it did not need to happen.
"A UK Government willing to invest in Grangemouth as it has done in Scunthorpe could have saved the plant and guaranteed the jobs for years to come."