News / Robinson backs replacing NorthLink vessels
SHETLAND Islands Council leader Gary Robinson has backed the option of selling off the Hjaltland, Hrossey and Hamnavoe ferries when the North Boats contract comes up for renewal in 2018.
Robinson said he felt replacement vessels with more cabins and lower fuel consumption would improve the ferry service between Lerwick, Kirkwall and Aberdeen.
He was speaking following the latest talks between island authorities and Scottish Government ministers at Lerwick Town Hall on Monday as part of the “our islands, our future” campaign for further autonomy.
Transport links were the main topic of conversation at a time when the SNP government is facing a legal challenge from private company Streamline over the manner in which the North Boats contract was controversially awarded to Serco two years ago.
Planning minister Derek Mackay admitted there was “room for improvement” after Northern Isles politicians bemoaned the islands’ lack of input in drawing up the specification for the £240 million contract.
Mackay said a ministerial working group on islands autonomy was looking at “how you empower communities to take decisions for themselves”.
He hopes the talks will “pave the way for even greater involvement in transport decisions” for the three councils.
Robinson and his Orcadian counterpart Steven Heddle felt ministers had got the message loud and clear that islanders deserved a greater say on the North Boats contract, but it “remains to be seen what might be done to address that”.
The passenger vessels Hjaltland and Hrossey, and the freight ship Hamnavoe, were introduced on the route by NorthLink back in 2002.
Since then passengers have regularly complained about the lack of cabin space on board the vessels.
“Clearly we feel that now is the right time to be starting a dialogue with the Scottish Government about replacing those ferries,” Robinson said.
“One of the key things that was missed in the original contract was the number of cabins on the ferries. The Hjaltland and Hrossey had somewhere in the order of half of the cabins that the ferries that preceded them had, and that’s been an ongoing problem since the new service started in 2002.”
He added that negotiations ahead of the 2018 contract also offered an opportunity to address the likelihood of a steep rise in running costs when a new European directive on sulphur levels in fuel is brought in next year.
Robinson pointed out that the directive could have a “significant knock-on cost” given the two passenger ferries burn up to 4,000 litres of fuel per hour.
Meanwhile, ministers accepted that a “fair and transparent” structure of ferry fares for people living in the three island groups needs to be put in place.
Western Isles leader Angus Campbell also took part in discussions alongside Heddle and Robinson, who described the fourth of six planned sessions as “the most crucial so far”.
The three authorities agreed to begin preliminary talks with civil servants about how fixed link tunnels and bridges might be built so they can move away from running costly inter-island ferries.
Robinson said the long term benefits of building tunnels were “considerable and worthwhile”.
He feels a long term agreement lasting around 40 years may be necessary to fund the construction of subsea tunnels to link Bressay, Unst, Yell and Whalsay to the Shetland Mainland.
“The Skye Bridge is an example of infrastructure that the Scottish Government effectively paid for,” Robinson added, “and that’s the kind of arrangement that we’d be seeking.”
Mackay said the Scottish Government was “interested in exploring” the possibility of building tunnels and bridges, which may ultimately require European funding.
He added that Scotland would be far better placed to access its share of European money for such projects as an independent EU member state “rather than leaving it to London [to represent] our interests”.
Other topics of conversation on Monday’s agenda included agriculture, tourism, and broadband and mobile phone coverage.
The next meeting of the islands/ministerial working group will be in Stornoway in late March, with the eventual aim of publishing a “prospectus” in June setting out what further powers island councils might gain.
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