Attempt on world rocket record called off

Rocket Man’ Terry McDonald says he has made the ‘difficult’ decision in the light of environmental concerns and the poor public response to the sponsor-a-rocket scheme. But the decision has dismayed the man who stood to lose his world record, Plymouth University Professor Roy Lowry, who planned to come to the Island to see the effort. And he claims the environmental concerns have been exaggerated. ‘As a chemist lecturing on our BSc programmes in chemistry, environmental science, marine biology and chemical oceanography, I read the reports produced by the Environment department with some interest. ‘The main report contains quite a few figures, but none of these relate to actual measurements made at a fireworks event. Worst-case calculations (based on all the substances used in the rockets ending up in the bay) give figures in the range of parts per billion – ie, very low concentrations.’