Letters / Let’s tunnel
Councillor Jonathan Wills, in a comment on a Shetland Times online article about Bressay ferry fares, has proposed replacing the current arrangement with a chain ferry, something I have no experience and little knowledge of, but which sounds like a decent idea for improving Bressay’s transport link to Lerwick.
It will not, however, be cheap to install and capital will have to be found, so why spend new money on chain ferries, when it could go towards a road tunnel, a solution which Dr Wills fears is well over the horizon due to SIC financial problems?
The SIC recently proposed building a Bressay bridge from Heogan to Scatland Point, an expensive project, so presumably, there was money available for that and we have been told, repeatedly, that the capital budget is unrelated to the current need for cuts in services.
As I understand it, the ferry money comes from the Scottish government who should wish to see it used in a better way and should be prepared to put up capital towards a tunnel (to Ham vicinity, not Heogan, please!) which, after all, would be a first for Scottish Islands – a demonstration project – with the prospect of many more, on which construction companies would wish to “get a toe in the door”. Other sources, like the EU, will likely pitch in.
Opening up Bressay would also open up space for expansion of the port facilities, housing, etc., bringing major benefits to not only, Bressay, but also, Lerwick and Shetland as a whole.
All of that money and benefits could be available and since Bressay has few of the facilities other islands have, surely, Shetland Charitable Trust could also contribute and/or invest, as appropriate.
There were road tunnels in Faroe 50 years ago but, of course, they had secured self-governing autonomy from Denmark, purportedly an SIC ambition, although, only by ponderous “salami slice” negotiations, presumably, every time there’s a Scottish independence referendum.
“Best not hold our breath,” then!
Road tunnels are an issue which could have been addressed by Our Islands, Our Future (OIOF) – and wasn’t. Alas, both SCT and OIOF’s “tunnel vision” is restricted to a single, grotesque project, Viking Energy and it appears, submarine cables held sway over island fixed links as a negotiation objective?
The real problem is a lack of leadership by the SIC who had direct input into the OIOF negotiations.
The SIC could have insisted that island fixed links be made an objective and didn’t. How could they, they had no information on which to argue a case?
Despite assurances that they are “looking at it” the SIC has yet to produce a cost-benefit assessment of road tunnels.
Without SIC leadership, tunnel links will go nowhere and it obviously isn’t a priority.
Well, it should be a priority, at the very least, to produce a decent cost-benefit study and if a short, relatively inexpensive, tunnel to Bressay is installed, it will provide real-life evidence as to whether it’s worth extending the project to the other isles.
Perhaps, Ms Sturgeon would support such an initiative?
John Tulloch
Lyndon
Arrochar
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