Council / Tunnels move up the agenda but no solution in sight
- Tunnels more than just economic infrastructure
- ‘Unrealistic’ to expect the Scottish Government to fund tunnels
- More ‘Tunnel Vision’ events next week
SHETLAND Islands Council says it has had positive responses from both governments after its aspiration to build tunnels to replace aging ferries was aired on national television last month.
The council employed the services of PR company Message Matters to get BBC Scotland to take on the task of reporting from Shetland and neighbouring Faroe.
The PR consultancy also managed to get two other of its clients – civil engineering company COWI and Scottish Sea Farms – involved in the reporting.
Message Matters director Andy Maciver wrote on his LinkedIn page: “Tunnels are not just a piece of transport infrastructure – as the Faroese Prime Minister makes clear in the story, they are pieces of social and economic infrastructure.
“For Shetland, this is about sustainability. As we see in the Faroes, islands with tunnels repopulate, have a lower average age, and have a higher GDP per person.”
The piece was intended to move the fixed links topic higher up the national agenda.
Council leader Emma Macdonald wrote on LinkedIn at the time: “Here in Shetland we know how important we are to the rest of Scotland; we need to see investment in our infrastructure that allows us to do more and that allows our communities to thrive.”
Back in June councillors voted to take forward for consideration recommendations to build tunnels to Yell, Unst, Bressay and Whalsay.
However, at this stage it is not clear how this could be financed under the current set-up.
The next stage for the council’s consultants Stantec is to produce an outline business case, which will look at the options in more detail and could ultimately lead to a full business case later in the process.
The SIC is investing up to £990,000 from Crown Estate revenue to examine the tunnel possibilities.
Asked if the council is doing the government’s job in investing and investigating how best to finance a large infrastructure project such as this, SIC chief executive Maggie Sandison said the council never expected the Scottish Government to be in a position to fund it in its entirety.
She said the work the council is doing has “transferable elements” that could be applied elsewhere in Scotland.
“We are doing a job for Shetland which will be of interest in a national context,” she said, adding that the council receives just £5 million annually in capital grant from the government.
With less public money available, she said it was unrealistic to expect the Scottish Government to be able to fund tunnels for Shetland, and private finance needed to be explored as an option.
“We never expected that the Scottish Government would have the availability of funds to fund the tunnels,” she said.
“To think that we could be in a position of trying to secure the scale of investment that is needed directly as grant is quite unrealistic.” Sandison added:
“Finance matters. You can have the best plans for what you want to do, but if you can’t afford to deliver it then they won’t happen – which is why we are very much focussed on the financial mechanism, and how we best set up ourselves, and what the roles are for government in supporting such mechanism.”
Meanwhile, the isles’ two Lib Dems parliamentarians Alistair Carmichael MP and Beatrice Wishart MSP are embarking on another round of their Tunnel Vision public meetings, starting next week.
Carmichael said: “With each round of events islanders have built momentum and consensus around the campaign for tunnels in Shetland.
“This month’s events will be a chance to take that momentum and push the campaign on further. I would encourage everyone with an interest to join our meetings or get in touch.
“The formation of Tunnel Action Groups across the isles has been absolutely vital to making progress and I look forward to further discussions with them over the course of the week. While there is still a long way to go, the developments in the council’s own plans on tunnels are a testament to the determination of the TAGs to keep this on the political agenda.”
The events are as follows:
- Monday 18 August, Unst, Baltasound hall 6pm
- Tuesday 19 August, Fetlar, Fetlar hall, 12.15pm
- Monday 19 August: Yell, Burravoe hall, 6.30pm
- Wednesday 20 August, Whalsay, Symbister hall, 7pm
- Thursday 21 August, Bressay, Bressay hall, 7.30pm
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