Government climb down on ferry cuts
THE SCOTTISH government has climbed down on its demands for £1 million savings on the lifeline ferry service to the northern isles.
Transport minister Stewart Stevenson met the conveners of Shetland and Orkney islands councils on Monday, where he told them that no changes would be made to the service in the current financial year.
He also expressed hope that cuts and fare hikes could be avoided next year with increased traffic from the construction project at Sullom Voe, in Shetland, where French energy giant Total are to build a £500 million gas processing plant.
The announcement marks a U turn for Mr Stevenson, who announced without warning last March that state-owned ferry operator NorthLink would have to make immediate cuts of £300,000 followed by a further saving of £700,000 this winter.
The islands responded with collective outrage, forcing the government to introduce a three month consultation on eight possible options for saving money.
Only last week that consultation was extended for a month until 30 September after Mr Stevenson announced a £6.5 million extension to the road equivalent tariff pilot to the western isles on 31 August, the day the northern isles consultation was due to close.
The timing of the announcement led to calls for Mr Stevenson to resign, and both councils angrily rejected all eight options laid before them for saving money, including fare increases and slower travel times to save on fuel.
A hurriedly arranged meeting with the two council conveners Sandy Cluness and Stephen Hagan in Edinburgh on Monday led to the government’s latest announcement that no savings would be needed for the foreseeable future.
Speaking after the meeting, Mr Stevenson said: “The performance of NorthLink this year has been much better than we expected and we are not going to look for the savings that we thought we would need.
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“Next year we expect to make very substantial further improvements in the performance of the NorthLink contract to enable us to deliver the service within the monies we expect to be available.
“There will be increasing opportunities for NorthLink with the contracts at Sullom Voe that will mean that there will be increasing income and that is going to be very helpful in balancing the books.”
The minister justified the expense of the RET pilot in the western isles saying their relative poverty and declining population demanded support for the economy, yet he added that an underspend on the RET budget had made money available to support NorthLink.
Monday’s announcement was welcomed by Shetland Islands Council convener Sandy Cluness.
“I am pleased with the outcome that there won’t be any changes this year and I am hopeful there won’t be any changes in the future until the end of the contract.
“We made the point as clearly as we could that we felt there had to be a degree of equality between what had happened to our friends in the western isles and what happened in Shetland and Orkney and I think the minister took that on board.”
The islands’ two MSPs welcomed the government’s decision to pull back from cutting back the NorthLink service, but questioned the fitness of Mr Stevenson as transport minister.
Shetland MSP Tavish Scott said: “I’m delighted the SNP have seen sense and U-turned. People in Shetland rely on these lifeline links and it was shameful for the SNP to play politics with them.”
Orkney MSP Liam McArthur added: “Welcome though this U-turn is, it begs serious questions about the competence of the transport minister.
“In the last six months, Mr Stevenson has tried to slow down our Aberdeen ferry service, removed the lifeline entirely by diverting the Hamnavoe to Bergen and spent weeks demanding a million pound budget cut he now claims is unnecessary. Each time, consultation with the councils and communities affected was either an after thought or a smokescreen.
“Such an utter shambles undermines public confidence in this government’s ability to manage our lifeline ferry services. It is time Mr Salmond took note and took action.”
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