Perception of Shetland tunnels shifting, MSP says
Hannah Mary Goodlad said there are now ‘serious conversations’ happening around tunnels for Shetland
SHETLAND MSP Hannah Mary Goodlad believes the “national conversation” on tunnels in the isles has changed.
She said there is now a “serious conversation” happening, including around potential models of finance.
Goodlad was speaking after co-hosting her first ‘Tunnel Vision’ events in Shetland alongside Northern Isles MP Alistair Carmichael in August.
The pair, representing the SNP and Liberal Democrats respectively, visited Bressay, Whalsay, Unst, Yell, Fetlar and Brae as the pair stepped beyond party lines to work together for the first time.
The latest round of Tunnel Vision events, which were first held a number of years ago, had extra significance given Shetland Islands Council recently approved a “direction of travel” towards tunnels to Yell and Unst, and Whalsay and Bressay in the longer-term.
Next for the council is to discuss a 30-year implementation plan, which would then give way for the business case process. It is expected this plan will come before elected members later this month.
Speaking to Shetland News, Goodlad – who is also Scotland’s public finance minister – said she felt the tunnel events were a useful chance for herself and Carmichael to test their new working relationship.
“I think folk really appreciate seeing two different parties working together for Shetland, and putting the place first,” she said.
“I think that was the spirit of the discussions that we had all across these locations.
“It was SIC, it was Westminster, represented by Alistair, it was Holyrood represented by me, and it was also the tunnel action groups, the community, coming together.”
Goodlad said the ethos behind the events was that “Shetland needs this”, with a view to exploring how the various levers could be used to push the idea forward.
With the SIC investing a lot of money in a now-completed inter-island transport connectivity study, and a fixed link modelling project, Goodlad said the perception about tunnels for Shetland has changed.
Consultants COWI concluded that tunnels in Shetland are feasible, and that contractors are willing to work in the isles.
The cost, however, for tunnels to Yell, Unst, Bressay and Whalsay were priced at a combined £1.5 billion, with funding options – including government grants, borrowing and private finance – among the suggestions.
“A couple of years ago if folk had mentioned tunnels in Shetland you would have just been laughed at, it’s just pie in the sky, it will never happen,” Goodlad said.
“There’s a serious conversation now happening.
“There’s a serious conversation happening in terms of looking at different models of finance for this, there’s a serious conversation happening at Westminster because the Unst tunnel is linked to the space industry, which is linked to defence, and the only budget that is increasing is defence at the moment.
“And then from a Holyrood perspective, money is very tight right now but I think that there’s interest at looking at our geography across Scotland and saying, ‘well we’ve got many islands here, and there’s clearly into companies looking at our geography’.”
The MSP said those companies will be thinking there could be a “real pipeline of opportunity” elsewhere in the country if the first tunnels are “unlocked” in Shetland.
“There’s an excitement about it, and there’s momentum around it,” she added.
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