Letters / Could the Scottish Government explain, please?
In 2016/17, the Scottish Government refused a proposal to build tunnels in Shetland with a statement that cost of a fixed link would significantly exceed the costs associated with ongoing ferry services, even when considered over two ferry replacement cycles.
That was outwith the £76 million GeoConsult preliminary offer, which is significantly out-of-step with ballpark prices provided by other contractors with a proven track record in tunnelling.
Those tunnelling offers from other contractors they mentioned, were never revealed publicly by the SIC officials.
The statement from the Scottish Transport minister came as a complete surprise to many in Shetland, who had viewed the figures in the same transport link documents called the SIITS report; which appeared to show that a tunnel link to Whalsay would have cost around £1.1 million per annum to run, in comparison to the ferry service which was shown to be costing £3.4 million to run at that time.
The cost for the construction of a Whalsay tunnel including connecting roads, was being offered to the SIC in 2016/17 for £76 million.
The cost estimate for the construction of a new ferry and two new ferry terminals for the Whalsay route was shown in the same report to be £60,821,128 and appeared to have no costs included for connecting roads to the new ferry terminals.
However, the Whalsay ferry Hendra and all three of the ferry terminals on the two Whalsay routes are presently beyond their age replacement dates and the second Whalsay ferry Linga will reach her replacement date in 2032.
Taking note of those details perhaps John Swinney could be encouraged to explain how the Scottish Government reached their conclusion regarding our inter-island transport links.
William Polson
Whalsay
