Letters / Claiming credit for tunnel progress
The LibDems’ election leaflet now slipping through local letterboxes credits their candidate Emma Macdonald with “persuading” the Scottish Government to “support work to explore the construction of undersea road tunnels to replace ferries to Bressay, Yell, Unst and Whalsay”.
However, as the leader of Shetland Islands Council she should know that numerous other people and local organisations have been lobbying for this over many years.
Beatrice Wishart MSP, who’s done a fair share of the work, could tell her that Scottish ministers have never refused to consider tunnels, but they did ask the council to be more specific.
There was however a long delay in presenting a detailed case to the government to help pay for a new study. That delay was perhaps due in part to a lack of political will by the council leadership.
Some of us may remember that the council itself commissioned a study a while back but nothing came of it.
Ms Macdonald will also know that there’s a lot of work still to be done on the technical details of the various proposed tunnels, some of which will need expensive waterproof lining because of the geology.
When that work is complete, we will be faced with the hard part – how much the tunnels will actually cost and how to pay for them.
It’s likely to be an eye-watering sum and of course not all the islands will be connected at once.
Whoever is elected to replace Beatrice Wishart (and it may not be Emma Macdonald) will “continue to press the case for tunnels” – that’s what MSPs are paid for.
Fiona Morton Cluness
Sand
