News / Tavish pledge on business discount
SHETLAND MSP and Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Tavish Scott has pledged to reinstate discounted fares for business air travellers if his party wins power during the May elections.
Transport minister Keith Brown has rejected a call from Mr Scott to look again at government plans to exclude business travel from the 40 per cent Air Discount Scheme (ADS) for Scottish islands. The government hopes to save £2.7 million by the move.
In a letter to the Shetland MSP, Mr Brown said the ADS was not designed to support economic activity.
“It is for the benefit of individuals and not organisations whether in the public or private sectors,” the minister wrote.
He admitted that no assessment had been made of the plan’s economic impact, but said the NHS is already excluded from the ADS, and other public bodies should be treated the same way.
Mr Scott, who introduced ADS as transport minister in May 2006, said Mr Brown was wrong to suggest the scheme was not designed to support economic activity in the isles.
“It was designed to help the economic future of the islands, by cutting all fares paid by island residents. As for the current exclusion of NHS travel, that was because the government already paid for patients’ air travel, so that example is no more than a red herring,” he said.
Mr Scott also condemned the government for wasting money policing air travellers who tried to combine personal and business travel, to make sure the full fare was paid.
“They are going to set up what will no doubt be a huge bureaucracy to ‘police’ this retrograde measure. What will that cost? The SNP government is going to pick our pockets and then spend at least some of the money they take on a bureaucracy which we would not need if they would drop this plan.”
He said Shetland would pay a substantial share of the £2.7 million the government hoped to save, “a sum that we cannot afford when the private, public and voluntary sectors all face real economic challenges”.
He added: “If the Liberal Democrats are in power after the election, we will reinstate business travel. I introduced the scheme originally, and, if given the chance, I will restore it to what it was always intended to be.”
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