News / Tunnel dream a nightmare for Whalsay
THE ISLAND community of Whalsay is being strangled while councillors explore their £300 million dream of digging tunnels to Shetland’s four main islands, according to council vice convener Josie Simpson.
Mr Simpson, who lives on Whalsay, said more and more commuters were battling for the limited spaces on the two ferries serving the island.
He said the situation was so “dire” that on his way to Tuesday’s meeting of Shetland Islands Council’s infrastructure committee he had witnessed one driver making three attempts to secure a single space on the ferry to the mainland.
Fellow North Isles member Robert Henderson said matters would get worse if Whalsay’s fish factory failed to re-open and more people were forced to commute to the Shetland mainland for work.
In June councillors agreed to abandon plans to spend £26 million replacing their ageing ferry terminals, instead embarking on a campaign to raise £300 million to build tunnels to Whalsay, Bressay, Yell and Unst.
On Tuesday the infrastructure committee voted by the narrowest margin – the casting vote of chairwoman Iris Hawkins – to spend £50,000 a year on employing a project officer to oversee the tunnel project.
Mr Simpson complained the council was kicking the problems on the Whalsay ferry “into the long grass”, while Shetland South member Rick Nickerson wanted the issue deferred until a group identifying financial savings reported back to council.
Meanwhile Whalsay’s ferry links are to be re-assessed by the council’s capital programme team to find a short term solution to the current capacity problems and the warning from engineers that the existing infrastructure will only last a maximum of five years.
North Isles councillor Laura Baisley warned that the island could become depopulated in the meantime.
“People will no longer find it viable to live on the islands. In the case of Whalsay they may well want a fixed link in the future, but what they need at the moment is a better ferry service. I think we have behaved abominably in the case of Whalsay,” she said.
The council must now identify savings of £50,000 to cover the cost of the tunnel project officer.
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