The Scottish Government is facing criticism after handing £4 million to a billionaire’s bottled water firm. Emirati tycoon Mahdi Al-Tajir’s Highland Spring received the cash for a train depot at his factory in Perthshire after claiming it will reduce the carbon footprint of the business.
But bottled water has been criticised as a massive and unnecessary contributor to global warming and plastic pollution. Labour MSP Neil Bibby said: “It is important we shift freight from road to rail as part of efforts to decarbonise the transportation of goods.
“The sums of public money involved in this are substantial and the burden for such investment should not always fall entirely on the taxpayer, particularly when they benefit large companies making substantial profits. There are questions for the Scottish Government to answer on the level of private investment that was sought and secured for this project.”
