A BLUEPRINT to save the Grangemouth industrial cluster is being progressed and will not sit “on a shelf,” SNP deputy First Minister Kate Forbes said today.

Ms Forbes defended Project Willow in a Holyrood ministerial statement just 24 hours after the report’s co-author Anu Bhambi told Westminster’s Scottish affairs select committee that unions’ favoured short-term option for the site’s survival —  sustainable aviation fuel production — could take years.

“Project Willow cannot and will not become a report that merely sits on a shelf — it is a call to action for the public and private sectors to work together to harness the potential of Granegemouth, the Deputy First Minister assured MSPs. “Project Willow is being progressed.”