SCOTLAND'S islands were left fighting against each other last night over a Scottish Government scheme aimed at cutting the cost of ferry fares.
Stewart Stevenson, the transport minister, was in Stornoway to launch a pilot scheme that could result in ferry fares to and from the Western Isles being slashed by up to half the present cost.
But that has angered politicians in Orkney and Shetla
nd, who say the three-year pilot will give the Hebrides an unfair advantage as the cost of transport to the Northern Isles will remain high.
They say the scheme is biased in favour of one island group and amounts to "blatant discrimination", and question whether the Western Isles are getting subsidies because they have an SNP MP and SNP MSP.
Mr Stevenson said the government wanted to replace the existing ferry fares system with a Road Equivalent Tariff (RET) scheme, which would link ferry prices to the cost of travelling the same distance by road. A £22.5 million pilot scheme will start on 19 October and run until the spring of 2011. It will initially look at routes between Ullapool and Stornoway; Uig in Skye to Tarbert (Harris) and Lochmaddy (North Uist); Oban to Castlebay (Barra) and Lochboisdale (South Uist), and Oban to Coll and Tiree.
There is no guarantee the scheme will be rolled out to Orkney and Shetland.
High ferry charges have been blamed for hampering development and it is argued that cutting fares will boost island economies by reducing charges to businesses, lowering the cost of living for islanders and helping to attract more tourists.
A report in 2006 said more than 700 jobs and £22.2 million a year could be generated in the Western Isles if ferry fares were cut by about 30 per cent and journeys increased.
Under the Ret scheme, cars and small vehicles will be charged £5 plus 60p per mile; passengers will pay £2 plus 10p per mile, and commercial vehicles £30 plus 18p per lane metre per mile.
It will mean the present £15.30 one-way passenger fare for the Ullapool-Stornoway crossing will be cut to £7.22. The £75 fare for cars will drop to £36.32 and for commercial vehicles from £264.43 to £133.90.
Shetland and Orkney politicians feel aggrieved as peak one-way charges on Northlink Ferries from Scrabster to Stromness in Orkney are £15.50 for passengers and £46.40 for cars. Those from Aberdeen to Lerwick are £32.70 for passengers and £116.60 for cars, and for Aberdeen to Kirkwall, £24.90 and £88.40.
The £22.5 million will be paid to the state-owned ferry company Caledonian MacBrayne, which already receives a subsidy of £43 million for its 24 routes.
In terms of car numbers using ferries, Uig/Tarbert/Lochmaddy is the sixth biggest in the CalMac fleet, with Ullapool-Stornoway seventh, Oban/Castlebay/Lochboisdale 18th and Oban/Coll/Tiree 19th.
Mr Stevenson said: "For years, our remote and fragile communities have been expressing concerns about the affordability of ferry travel and the impact this has on islanders.
"Expensive fares can be damaging, not only to our local economies but to our national economy, and this Scottish Government wants to take action."
He added: "While initially focusing a pilot on the Western Isles, we want this test case to pave the way for cheaper fares for all our island communities."
The news was hailed by politicians in the Western Isles and within the SNP. Alasdair Allan, the Nationalist MSP, said islanders had been waiting for 40 years for Ret. "In all that time, they have been paying far more per mile to travel than virtually anywhere in Scotland, creating a real economic disadvantage for the Western Isles.
"Now we know the waiting will finally be over later this year. This is the biggest transformation of island transport services in a generation and will have, I believe, immediate benefits for businesses, tourism, and shops, as well as individual islanders," he said.
Alex MacDonald, the convener of Comhairle nan Eilean Siar (Western Isles Council), said: "This scheme will be a boost for tourism, for business in the islands and for the travelling public."
But the Liberal Democrats condemned the announcement. Tavish Scott, the MSP for Shetland and a former transport minister, said: "This is blatant discrimination. Reducing ferry fares to help island economies is the right approach, but this pilot is expected to last for three years and only targets one Scottish island group.
"The SNP government is essentially operating a permanent scheme in one part of Scotland, but not in the equally deserving other island groups.
"People here are slightly wondering, 'Is it to do with the SNP hold on the Western Isles?' Because if that were the reason, that's not a good reason to base policy".
Liam McArthur, the Lib Dem MSP for Orkney, said the scheme would put Northern Isles businesses at a competitive disadvantage over the next three years.
"We will find it harder to attract the tourists seeking an island experience, as the Western Isles trumpet their cheaper fares. These are not pilot schemes. The fact that they run right up until the next election shows that they are electoral bribes," he said.
Labour transport spokesman Des McNulty said ferry users would have benefited more from Labour proposals – which would have seen the discount scheme for air travellers in the Highlands and Islands rolled out to the ferries.
The Scottish Government says that after the pilot, there will be an assessment of traffic statistics and information from ferry users and local employers, including the freight and tourist sectors. Consultants will then report their findings
before ministers consider whether RET should be applied on a permanent basis and rolled out to other ferry routes in the Clyde and Hebrides and Northern Isles.
The full article contains 980 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
