Election / Tunnels high priority for Lib Dem leader Cole-Hamilton
SCOTTISH Liberal Democrats leader Alex Cole-Hamilton says tunnels for Shetland is one of his party’s key infrastructure projects this election campaign.
He claimed the SNP government has made “glacial progress” on the topic and has made no “meaningful funding commitment”.
Speaking to Shetland News, the Cole-Hamilton also pressed his party’s desire to see a replacement Gilbert Bain Hospital pushed forward – and not just repairs and maintenance.
The party is represented in the Shetland election by candidate Emma Macdonald.
They have held the since the formation of the Scottish Parliament in 1999, and you have to stretch back to the 1950s when Shetland was last represented by someone outwith the Lib Dems.
Speaking on the phone on Wednesday, Cole-Hamilton pointed to how he was the only person on STV’s leaders debate the night before who mentioned Shetland tunnels and the Gilbert Bain.
He said the Lib Dems’ three key infrastructure projects are Shetland tunnels, dualling of the A9 motorway and fixing the so-called “ferries fiasco” on the West Coast.
“It is priority number one for us,” he said, “unlike the SNP who said that their first priority on the first day of the new parliament is trigger a programme for a second divisive independence referendum”.
“My first priority and Emma Macdonald’s first priority is to advance critical, vital island infrastructure, and for Shetland that’s tunnels.”
When asked if the Lib Dems would push for progress on tunnels in future budget negotiations with a minority SNP government, he said that he hoped for the “sake of the islands and for everyone else in Scotland” that the SNP do not return to government.
“I think what we need after 19 years of SNP failure is a change of government, and it needs to be change with fairness at its heart,” he continued.
“But if they do make it back, then we’ve shown that we will be grown-ups, and we will negotiate in good faith on SNP budgets.
“It’s only because of the Liberal Democrats that we got the capital planning around the new Gilbert Bain Hospital out of the deep freeze.”
Locally Shetland Islands Council – in which Macdonald is political leader – is continuing to work on a significant study on its inter-island transport network, with tunnels to Yell, Unst, Whalsay and Bressay under consideration.
The expectation is that this could result in business cases which set out the case for tunnels, or new ferries.
A report is expected to be presented to councillors in June setting out the next possible steps.
Meanwhile with the local SNP campaign running with a slogan that says a ‘seat at the table’ of government would be more beneficial for Shetland, Cole-Hamilton was questioned if this is what the isles need.
He responded by saying that Lib Dem MP Alistair Carmichael and outgoing Shetland MSP Beatrice Wishart have “advanced the tunnels agenda” themselves by holding meetings in islands to survey community sentiment.
Cole-Hamilton added that it would be a “grim kind of politics” if the government only serves the communities where they have their party’s MSPs.
He said communities on the west coast already have SNP MSPs at the “table”, but have been let down by continued issues with ferry services.
Elsewhere, the leader also reiterated that the Lib Dems advocate for greater community benefit from renewables, with Macdonald previously saying there should be a stop on new projects until there is real community benefit.
In the last Scottish Parliament election in 2021, the Lib Dems’ Beatrice Wishart’s 4,803 votes beat the SNP’s Tom Wills’ 4,997 in what was a relatively close contest.
Cole-Hamilton said he does not take the Shetland support for the Lib Dems’ for granted and will “fight for every vote”.
He also said he respected SNP candidate Hannah Mary Goodlad for her “dynamic, social media focused campaign”.
But the Lib Dem leader said he does not think Shetland needs a “backbench nationalist MSP who on day one will back independence and plunge us into 18 months of constitutional wrangling”.
Meanwhile one of the headlines which emanated from Tuesday’s STV leaders debate was around Reform’s Scotland chief Malcolm Offord saying he owned six houses, six boats and five cars.
When asked what his own tally is, Cole-Hamilton said he had one house, a car and “two paddleboards”.
The full list of confirmed Shetland candidates for the election on 7 May, in alphabetical order, are as follows: Alex Armitage (Greens), Douglas Barnett (Conservatives), Vic Currie (Reform UK), John Erskine (Labour), Hannah Mary Goodlad (SNP), Emma Macdonald (Liberal Democrats), Brian Nugent (Alliance to Liberate Scotland), Peter Tait (independent).
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