Transport / External funding targeted for new Foula and Papa Stour waiting facilities
GOVERNMENT funding could be used to pay for two new ferry waiting facilities in Papa Stour and Foula.
Shetland Islands Council has submitted a grant application to the Scottish Government’s Rural Tourism Infrastructure Fund, which is managed by VisitScotland, for £162,800.
If this grant is approved – notification of the outcome is due by 4 April – then the remaining cost of £40,700 would be funded from the SIC’s ferry services grant it receives annually from the Scottish Government.
If the Rural Tourism Infrastructure Fund bid fails then the total cost of the project will be funded from the ferry services grant.
A business justification case for the waiting rooms project got its first airing in front of councillors this morning (Monday).
The proposal is to install a prefabricated waiting room with accessible toilets at each of the terminals.
At the moment Foula has no waiting facilities, and in Papa Stour they are in very poor condition.
A report to councillors confirmed that the current facilities at Papa Stour do not comply with the Disability Discrimination Act or Equalities Act.
The total capital cost of the project reaches to £204,000.
The business case said: “These units will be constructed in a workshop on mainland Shetland and shipped to Papa Stour and Foula as completed units, meaning minimal onsite works.
“A permanent structure is not possible at present due to the remote locations’ logistics and funding constraints.
“The cabin is likely to remain onsite for the duration of its design life and will provide assistance to visually impaired, wheelchair users, people with profound and multiple learning disabilities and people with physical disabilities.”
At Monday’s policy and resources committee meeting Shetland West councillor Liz Peterson had questions over the apparent non-permanent nature of the modular waiting facilities.
However the SIC’s assets manager Robert Sinclair said the buildings had been specified by a local engineering consultancy with experience of Shetland’s weather.
He added that they were “more of a permanent solution” than the wording of the report may have suggested.
Ferry operations manager Andrew Inkster added that the “facilities won’t be temporary by any means, but they will be modular”.
He also said the hope is that they would be built to a “good standard” where maintenance would be minimised.
Peterson said she still had a concern the SIC could end up spending more money on maintenance and replacing the buildings “than we would if we had put up a permanent structure in the first place”.
After getting the approval of the policy and resources committee, the business justification case will next be heard by the full council towards the end of the month.
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