Letters / Join the dots
The election draws near with the (lucky?) winner welcoming a £77,000 salary plus £xxx of expenses, free travel, accommodation etc, probably preferring the aeroplane shuttle (unless delayed by inconsiderate fog) to avoid sharing a cabin with the hoi polloi on the ferry, or being ‘neeped’, or hove-to whilst sharing a cabin outside of Aberdeen.
To avoid these vicissitudes Dundee may offer solutions (refer to previous letters).
However there is yet a further destination to investigate.
Recently the UK Government granted Forthports, the owners of Rosyth (and Dundee) £3,000 to upgrade facilities at the port mirroring a similar amount from Holyrood. Why? The tax benefits of the ‘Green Ports’ scheme may be an obvious answer.
Surely, therefore, Shetland should try to take advantage of any such UK tax incentive?
The Holyrood portion: Part of the Scottish administration’s quest seeking a ferry service to Europe; the last such venture folded as there was not enough revenue/freight to justify it without vast subsidy.
The UK portion: To upgrade the port facilities and infrastructure, part of the recent defence updates and budget, Rosyth builds submarines and aircraft carriers.
DFDS: It is reported that the large Danish ferry company with routes throughout northern Europe (they recently advertised a new Newcastle/Amsterdam route) could be interested in providing a service from Rosyth?
Very recently the MoD chartered a DFDS ferry to transport British troops from Newcastle to Rotterdam, part of a NATO exercise.
Therefore, why not to and from Shetland to Norway, Faroe, Iceland Greenland as and when required?
Why should all the above be of interest to Shetland? Surely because of DFDS also having a Shetland base now.
Join the dots.
Fish and containers could be transported seamlessly from Cullivoe, in Yell, via tunnel to Toft onwards to Lerwick hence immediately on a ferry to Scotland to be instantly transhipped and connected at Rosyth aboard a sister DFDS ship on route to Dunkirk.
Likewise pelagic shipments from Lerwick, and whitefish and lobsters caught off Flugga could land on Paris restaurant’s plates within 36 hours.
Islanders could plan a holiday from Yell/Unst to France/Europe/Rome – by passing the bottle necks and hassle of Aberdeen airport and harbour. European tourists visiting Shetland by the return route would add to Shetland’s economy and DFDS’s revenue.
The DFDS website reports the company is considering methanol as fuel for their ferries in the Gothenburg area. That promising development could be extended to use methanol produced by EnQuest at Sullom Voe Terminal to fuel DFDS ferries on the Lerwick to Scotland route by large fast freight/passenger catamarans.
The UK Government/DFDS might consider a re-arrangement, ownership operation of the freight and passenger service to/from Shetland under the wing of its defence budget and NATO military requirements – delivering troops and or vehicles to Norway, Faroe, Greenland as and when necessary.
Would the SIC, candidates, the FM or PM care to comment?
Cecil Robertson
Inverness
