News / New 2018 ferries deal vital to protect services
SHETLAND Islands Council leader Gary Robinson says there will be a “serious question” over the sustainability of inter-island ferry services if a new deal with the Scottish Government is not struck in time for the 2018/19 financial year.
As recently as December the local authority had been expecting a deal to plug the £6 million-plus gap between the cost of running the ferries and the level of funding provided by the Scottish Government.
Transport Scotland has accepted, in principle, that it should be responsible for funding inter-island services in Shetland and Orkney in the same way it funds ferries in west coast communities.
But hopes of a new deal in time for 2017/18 were dashed by Transport Scotland earlier this month, with Scottish transport and islands minister Humza Yousaf saying on a visit to Shetland on Monday that talks were continuing with a view to finding a fairer deal.
Robinson met Yousaf following Monday’s Convention of the Highlands and Islands, but said there “really hasn’t been any progress” either on internal ferry funding or fare reductions on the Northern Isles route.
“The budget is looking incredibly tight,” he acknowledged, “but we did try to impress upon him that, if the political will was there, we believed this was something they could and should do.”
He referred to dialogue with Yousaf’s predecessor Derek Mackay prior to last May’s Scottish Parliament elections which “led to council officers and civil servants working together on the internal fares issue, and we certainly weren’t given any indication that that wasn’t going to proceed to a conclusion”.
With no deal having been tabled after the festive period, the SIC went ahead and set a budget for 2017/18 absorbing the extra cost of funding ferry services.
“By the time we got to the budget-setting process we had no certainty that we were going to get anything, so we had to set a budget based on what we knew,” Robinson – who himself is seeking re-election on Shetland’s West Side later this spring – said on Wednesday.
“For the year after, I think there is a serious question over the sustainability of services, not least the internal ferry services, if we don’t get this issue resolved.”
The council leader said it was important to remain pragmatic and constructive, rather than getting “nasty or confrontational”, and to work with all political parties to get a new ferries deal and “maintain the consensus that has existed around what the islands are trying to do”.
Shetland’s Liberal Democrat MSP Tavish Scott said he had been under impression that the two island councils had a clear assurance from the government about a new deal being in place this April, but that appeared not to be the case.
“So it is disappointing that the government never planned to make any money available to the council for ferries in the next financial year as they gave every impression that they would,” he said.
“Instead the SIC will have to find enough money from their reserves to keep ferries running. I will support the SIC in their endeavours to gain a specific ferry budget for local services in future.”
Earlier this month a government spokesman said it “understands the significant financial challenges that can fall on individual local authorities and is committed to the principle of fair funding in the provision of ferries and ferry infrastructure”.
He added it was committed to “meaningful negotiation to conclude this issue” and was “continuing our dialogue with both councils on this matter for financial year 2018/19”.
But Scott said the Lib Dems had proposed a host of measures including “greater investment in schools, mental health provision and transport” but the SNP government said no.
“They wanted us to vote for a budget of cuts. Look at the NHS. The local financial situation is dire. I am not voting for those cuts on Thursday when I wanted a budget that used the tax-varying powers Holyrood now has. Sadly, the SNP and Greens will vote for a cuts budget and they can explain why!”
Robinson, who has been one of the figureheads of the Our Islands Our Future (OIOF) campaign and is not affiliated to a political party, said he thought the Lib Dems probably had tried to use leverage to secure ferry funding.
But there was “quite a high price tag” attached to their overall demands and “looking at the party politics involved it was always going to be more palatable for the SNP to accept a Greens deal in any case”.
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