News / Ferry frustration bubbles over once again
A SCOTTISH government official was left in no doubt as to the strength of feeling towards ferry services when she attended a meeting of Shetland Islands Council’s development committee on Friday morning.
However the complaints did nothing to change the fact that the council remains completely excluded from the negotiations for a new lifeline service to Aberdeen.
Cheryl Murrie was in Shetland to brief the committee on the current tendering process and the government’s draft Scottish ferries plan.
Councillors used the opportunity to reassert their dismay that they were not part of the “competitive dialogue” between the government and the four remaining bidders NorthLink Ferries, P&O Ferries Holdings, Serco and Shetland Line (1984).
They also told her that the current service and fare structure for islanders were in stark contrast to the government’s own policies of equality and fairness.
Islanders were discriminated against, ZetTrans chairman Allan Wishart complained, when a family from Shetland had pay £720 for a return ticket between Lerwick and Aberdeen while a similar return ticket between Stornoway and Ullapool only cost £135 under Road Equivalent Tariff (RET).
He emphasised that the subsidy for ferry services was in reality an investment as Shetland was a net contributor to the Scottish economy.
“Orkney has six ferries a day, we currently have three a week,” he pointed out, stressing that the transport minister had only recently grasped the importance of a reliable freight service to Shetland, and indeed the rest of Scotland.
Councillor Jonathan Wills added that RET would never work for Shetland since the ‘road’ to the Scottish mainland was 200 miles long, one of the longest and roughest domestic ferry routes in Europe.
“The subsidies towards the ferries are part of the social contract. There are subsidies for the London Underground and the also the M8,” he observed.
Referring to the nine week long disruption due to the dry docking, he asked: “How would you feel if one lane of the M8 was closed every third day?”
Councillor Betty Fullerton added that Shetland’s contribution towards the overall Scottish economy was huge, a fact that was not sufficiently recognised by Edinburgh.
“We are not happy with this. We are looking for a fairer service for Shetland and the whole of the country. This is not just about Shetland,” she insisted.
Ms Murrie confirmed that councillors would only be able to see the details of the new lifeline ferry service contract once it has been signed.
Ministers would be happy to sit down with councillors afterwards to talk through the contract in detail, she said.
She also reminded the committee that the specifications of the contract had been drawn up following extensive consultation with ferry users and local communities.
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