News / Guest speakers turn down ferries meeting invite
A DEBATE on nationalising the Northern Isles ferry service due to take place in Orkney next month has been spurned by all six invited guest speakers.
Transport union RMT will still go ahead with its meeting in Kirkwall on 7 February to gauge the public’s view on the issue.
A similar meeting is expected to be held in Shetland in March.
Transport and islands minister Humza Yousaf, Lib Dem Orkney MSP Liam McArthur and Orkney council leader James Stockan were all invited to the Kirkwall meeting.
Regional list MSPs David Stewart (Labour) and John Finnie (Green) were also asked alongside Serco NorthLink managing director Stuart Garrett.
Finnie said the meeting lands on a day when the Scottish Parliament is sitting and added that he has suggested a new date.
The Scottish Government announced shortly before Christmas that it was extending Serco NorthLink’s existing contract, which had been due to expire in April 2018, while it decides whether or not to put the new contract out to tender.
The RMT believe the contract should be taken into public ownership and should be re-drawn by Transport Scotland to include inter-island ferry services in the Northern Isles.
Regional organiser Gordon Martin said he was disappointed to learn of the declined invitations.
“I’m still going ahead with myself addressing the meeting,” he said.
“Some of the MSPs are saying they’ve got other business and they’ll be in Edinburgh, and James Stockan is saying they would have only attended if other politicians were attending.
“We’re there to gauge the view of the public, and I’ll be giving our side of it.”
Martin added that the list of speakers who will be invited to the Shetland meeting will be similar to the Orkney one.
“If they decline the invitation, we’ll still be going ahead with a meeting,” he said.
As with the Orkney meeting, Conservative list MSP for the Highlands and Islands Jamie Halcro Johnston won’t be invited to the Shetland event.
“I’m already on record as saying we won’t be inviting the Tories, and that’s simply because we know their position,” Martin said.
“Their position is to privatise everything, so we don’t need to know that.”
Halcro Johnston previously said it was “extremely disappointing” that no Conservatives were invited to the Orkney meeting.
“Had I been able to attend, I would have made clear our position – that is that Orkney and Shetland need a reliable operator which meets the needs of the people and businesses of the Northern Isles, and not one which meets the needs of the SNP government in Edinburgh,” he said.
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