COMMUNITY activists have accused Nicola Sturgeon of snubbing their campaign against burning coal underneath the Firth of Forth.
It comes as the First Minister faces growing pressure from within the SNP to take a tougher stance against controversial gas extraction techniques.
The campaign group Our Forth, which was set up to oppose an unconventional form of gas extraction known as underground coal gasification (UCG), invited the First Minister to meet with them at a large-scale protest on Sunday and has been attempting to hand over a petition signed by 8,000 people to her in person for weeks.
Neither Ms Sturgeon nor any of her ministers will attend while campaigners have accused the Government of stalling over agreeing to receive their hefty petition. They wrote to the First Minister's office in August about the petition and were promised an answer by September 22, but remain in the dark.
A source close to Ms Sturgeon said that it would not be appropriate for ministers to attend the protest, less than a fortnight before the SNP conference, when a potentially divisive debate over a motion calling for ministers to extend a moratorium on fracking to UCG will take place. They added that the Government is always happy to accept petitions, although that did not mean ministers would accept them in person.
But the grassroots campaign group said that they are being ignored due to their lack of cash and experience, while ministers regularly correspond and meet with big energy companies who are keen to exploit unconventional gas extraction methods.
Juliana Muir, chairperson of Our Forth, described the Scottish Government approach as "a disgrace". She said that she has been told that the decision over whether to accept the petition had been passed to SNP special advisors, civil servants who also offer political advice to ministers, and that the reaction to the group flew in the face of claims to value community empowerment.
She added: "They claim to be a party protecting Scots from vested interests exploiting the country but then are stopping us deliver a petition signed by nearly 10,000 people.
"It's been so frustrating. I've been phoning and writing every week but not getting anywhere. I appreciate they're busy but it feels like they've closed the door in our faces because we're not seasoned campaigners and don't have the power and influence big companies have. We're being completely ignored in the hope that we'll go away."
It is understood that two SNP politicians, MP Martyn Day and MSP Colin Beattie, have accepted invitations to Sunday's protest alongside Scottish Labour deputy leader Alex Rowley. It is planned that hundreds of people will link hands across the Forth Road Bridge, as they call on the Scottish Government to extend its freeze on fracking to cover UCG.
The process, which sees underground coal seams set alight and gas siphoned off, has been blamed for serious land contamination issues in Australia and means continued exploitation of fossil fuels. Energy firm Cluff Natural Resources has licenses to explore UCG in the Firth of Forth, but the SNP Government has so far refused to extend its moratorium despite admitting it has the power to do so through the planning process.
The protest is being backed by a new internal group within Scotland's dominant political party, SNP Members Against Unconventional Oil and Gas, which is also lobbying the leadership to extend the moratorium.
A spokeswoman for Cluff Natural Resources said UCG could be worth billions of pounds to the Scottish economy and support thousands of jobs.
A Scottish Government spokesman said: "The Scottish Government is clear that the development of new energy technologies must be consistent with our environmental objectives and we will continue to take a careful, evidence-based approach to such developments."
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