Letters / Decades of decisions
Is it possible that the problems now surfacing regarding the financing of our SIC services as mentioned by the SIC chief executive Maggie Sandison is partly a result from decades of decisions being made by our SIC councillors, after following advice in SIC officials’ reports containing what appeared to be flawed figures without foundation.
The replacement of the Yell sound ferry service in 2002, estimated by SIC officials to cost around £19.4 million; versus a tunnel they initially priced at over £100 million, but after a tunnel price was sourced from Norway by members of the Yell community for £26.9 to £32.5 million, their tunnel cost estimate dropped to £35 million.
The ferries and terminals were eventually built costing £37.1 million up to 2006. The cost of running that service in 2015/16 was shown in the SIITS (Shetland Inter-Island Transport Study) report to be £5.8 million out of a cost for all of Shetland’s inter-island ferries of £16.29 million, that total figure was reported in 2023 to have risen by over 41 per cent to a figure of £23.1 million.
Raising the Yell sound ferries figure by 41 per cent would be £8.178 million in 2022/23 in comparison to a tunnel running cost sourced from the same SIITS report showing a figure of less than a £1 million in 2015/16; however, raising £1 million by 41 per cent would be £1.41 million in 2022/23.
It was also stated in the SIITS report that “the cost of a fixed link would significantly exceed the costs associated with ongoing ferry services, even when considered over two ferry replacement cycles”.
This statement was also mentioned in a reply from a Scottish Government transport minister in 2017.
Two ferry replacement cycles would be 60 years, so 60 X £8.178 m = £490.68 million; plus, the replacement costs of the ferry terminals plus the replacement costs of two new ferries twice; in comparison to 60 X £1.41 million = £84.6 million over a period of 60 years for the tunnel.
In 2010 regarding the replacement of the Whalsay three terminal transport link, our councillors appeared to have learned from the Yell Sound development and dismissed the ferries proposals and instructed their officials to search for funding for fixed links.
Now 14 years on, we in Whalsay still await the replacement of our ferry service infrastructure built nearly a half a century ago, which includes the oldest ferry in the SIC ferries fleet that was originally due for replacement over 20 years ago.
From 2010 members of our Whalsay community have sourced three separate offers to construct a tunnel to Whalsay (including offers of funding), all of which have been dismissed after our councillors followed advice from their SIC officials.
We are not aware that the SIC officials have sourced any funding for a tunnel during the 14 years since the councillors made their decision, this leads many of us in Whalsay to a conclusion that a change of personnel in prominent positions in the SIC may be long overdue.
William Polson
Whalsay
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