Letters / Good support for islanders
If, as Theo Nicolson says (‘Full attack mode, SN 16/2/15), Tavish Scott introduced the Air Discount Scheme in order to reduce the high cost of airfares between the Scottish islands and the mainland, why did he set the bar for the subsidy at only 40 per cent when the word from EU officials was that a discount of as much as 50 per cent was permissible under EU rules?
Since Tavish is evading the question, perhaps Theo as his proxy could enlighten us by answering.
There is no point in Mr Scott whining on about it now. He should have set the discount at 50 per cent when he had the power to do so when he was transport minister at Holyrood.
In addition, the scheme was introduced in great haste in May 2006 but only up to 31 March 2008, conveniently covering the period leading up to the 2007 election.
However, the SNP government has continued to fund this scheme ever since, the most recent extension taking it up to 31 March 2017 and also extended it to include Loganair’s
seasonal flights to Bergen in Norway. I would say that that is pretty good support for islanders.
Bill Adams,
Lerwick
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