Angus MacNeil MP for the Western Isles (Na h-Eileanan an Iar) and the SNP’s Transport Spokesman at Westminster has been calling for the trial of a fuel duty rebate in his constituency. His argument is that there is a real need for a level playing field for already hard pressed islanders who pay significantly more for petrol and diesel than their mainland counterparts.

The response of the UK Treasury to such calls has been described by Mr McNeil as ‘a dismissal’ and ‘madness’.

Argyll’s MSP, Jim Mather, Minister for Enterprise, Energy and Tourism has spoken out in support of his colleague’s efforts, saying: ‘It is curious to see that Treasury Minister Angela Eagle can indicate that the UK Government is “sensitive to the impact of high prices on those who live in rural areas” but then clearly demonstrate that this sensitivity does not extend to taking steps to rectify matters.

‘Historically there has been a significant gap between fuel prices across most of mainland UK and those in force in the Western and Northern Isles.

‘With the most recent spiralling in world oil prices that gap extended hugely and although prices have since dropped the gap is wider than before. Rural mainland fuel prices are high but the differentials there are not so extreme.

‘The irony that the Treasury draws even higher levels of tax from those paying the highest fuel prices in the UK is ignored.

‘In calling for a duty rebate in the first instance for the islands, Angus MacNeil identifies a clearly defined locale where there can be no dispute about boundaries. Clearly nobody from a mainland location is going to undertake an expensive ferry journey to gain a preferential pump price to fill the family car. All Treasury arguments about problems in defining the administrative boundaries of areas to benefit or the persistent canard about the “perverse incentives for motorists to drive further to fill up on low duty fuel” are washed away by the waters of The Minch and the Pentland Firth.

‘The argument for levelling the playing field in fuel duty costs for islanders is important. The costs of travel and to access services there are unacceptably high and this is clearly not going to be confronted by Treasury Ministers in London. In spite of the presence of successive Scottish tenants at 11 Downing Street, the political will to tackle the issue does not exist’.

As with the Scottish Government’s Road Equivalent Tariff (RET) scheme, Argyll’s islands are as needy as any of the level playing field proposed and dismissed.

For Argyll is bringing the matter to the attention of Alan Reid MP, Argyll and Bute’s representative at Westminster, asking him to support Mr McNeil’s initiative and to press for the inclusion of the Argyll islands in any considerations.