Fish market funding bid failure ‘very disappointing’

DISAPPOINTMENT was raised at Monday’s meeting of Shetland Islands Council’s harbour board that plans to build a new fish market in Scalloway failed to secure £2.4 million of European funding.

Shetland South member Allison Duncan said he was “very disappointed” to hear that the council would have to pay for the £5.6 million project itself after the application for the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund was unsuccessful.

Infrastructure director John Smith said the European funding pot had run dry – particularly after financing a new fish market in Peterhead – and admitted that the council “could have started the whole thing earlier”.

Duncan said after the meeting that it was unfortunate that the council lost out on the funding.

“I was very disappointed when I heard that the Scalloway funding project wasn’t coming to fruition,” he said.

“That means that’s £2.4 million out of Shetland PLC, and that’s money that we could have done with.

“I understand that when I asked why the delay, they admitted it could have maybe have been done quicker, but whether the money was still in their budget, I don’t know.”

Smith told councillors that the money for the fish market would come from the harbour account, and would be paid from external borrowing and income from its charges.