Transport Minister Stewart Stevenson’s blithe announcement Continue reading
Tag Archives: RET
CalMac, Western Ferries, Arran, competition and public services
The core of this situation is that Scotland – and Argyll – has inhabited Continue reading
Tavish Scott says recession aggravates Argyll Islands’ disadvantage in ferry fares
Shetland MSP and Leader of the Scottish Liberal democrats, Tavish Scott, has drawn attention to a new cost differential on living in and visiting the islands excluded from the Road Equivalent Tariff (RET) pilot scheme. The recession is driving an increasing gap in ferry fares between the islands of Orkney, Shetland and Argyll with the Western Isles and others incuded in the scheme.
Mr Scott says that while the islands in the 30 month RET pilot scheme have their ferry fares stabilised until 2010 the others, including almost all of the Argyll islands are looking at fare increases of inflation plus 0.5%.
However, a spokesperson for the Scottish Government has refuted Mr Scott’s argument, pointing out that the Government has absorbed almost all of the fuel cost increases which would have affected all ferry fares. She also said that, in addition, the Government has given additional financial support of around £29m to NorthLink Ferries to operate the services to Shetland and Orkney. That, however, does not help Argyll.
There are Argyll islands, like Colonsay, already facing a situation where it is considerably cheaper for visitors to get to its neighbouring island of Coll which is included in the RET scheme. It is hard to argue that the combined impact of inflation and recession – which tightens everyone’s domestic budget – will not induce summer visitors to take the ferry to Coll rather than to other Argyll islands such as the Islay group of which Colonsay is one.
The concern for such disadvantaged islands is that almost three years of this competitive disadvantage may be enough to cement visitor habits, leaving a legacy of longer term sidelining.
Note: The Road Equivalent Tariff pilot scheme is measuring the impact on island life and economies of limiting ferry fares to the cost of a road journey of equivalent distance. If it is successful in supporting both islanders and those visiting the islands it is intended to be adopted, creating cheaper fares for all Scottish island communities.
Argyll interest in UK Treasury dismissal of calls for trial fuel duty rebate in Western Isles
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.
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Colonsay keeps up the pressure for inclusion in RET pilot scheme
The Scottish Government’s Road Equivalent Tariff (RET) pilot scheme is now in operation (with some storm interruptions) reducing fares on the routes to the Western Isles and to Argyll’s Coll and Tiree, which share a route. The other Argyll islands of Mull, Iona, Islay, Jura, Colonsay, Gigha and Bute are excluded from the scheme.
From the outset, Colonsay, with a population of only 120, has fought hard to draw attention to its particular situation, always difficult and now comparatively – and possibly critically, under-resourced.
Along with the other islands not in the pilot, Colonsay is concerned at the economic impact of the long duration of the trial, potentially cementing visitor habits of visiting other islands which, being in the pilot scheme, will be cheaper to reach.
Mull councillor, Mary-Jean Devon has now said that she feels the Scottish Government missed an opportunity by not including Colonsay in the thirty-month pilot. In the winter timetable, now in operation, the two and a half hour ferry from Oban calls at the island only three times a week. A single ticket for a car and driver costs £60 over the winter period and more in the summer.
Councillor Devon described Colonsay as: ‘badly needing regeneration’ and ‘the ideal island for the RET trial. It is the end of the line’.
The excluded islands are meeting in Oban this Friday (24th October) to put the finishing touches to the case they are to present to the Scottish Government for a review of ferry fares and a 40% discount card for residents.
First winter storms disrupt Argyll island ferries at the start of the winter timetable
This weekend, the forecast gales came through and disrupted ferries to Argyll’s islands. Ironically this was the start of CalMac’s winter timetable and the start of the Scottish Government’s ferry fare subsidy to islands selected for inclusion in its Road Equivalent Tariff (RET) pilot scheme. For a great photo of the storm on Argyll’s of Islay, visit the Islay blog which is carrying a seascape shot taken today by Teresa Morris from Islay Wildscapes.
CalMac fares to rise for Summer 2009
West coast ferry operator, Caledonia MacBrayne (CalMac) have announced a 3.8% rise in ferry fares to take effect from the start of the 2009 Summer Timetable on 27th March. It will include the route from Dunoon in Argyll to Greenock in Inverclyde, operated by Cowal Ferries Ltd. The rise is below inflation and it will not apply to routes subject to the Scottish Government’s Road Equivalent Tariff (RET) pilot scheme.
The RET pilot freezes ferry fares until 2010 on the routes involved and subsidises fares to the equiveltn of a road journey of the same distance. The pilot scheme focuses mainly on the Western Isles and other Outer Hebridean Isles. It does include Argyll’s Isle of Coll, because that island is a stop on a subsidised route.
The islands excluded from the pilot have been very concerned about its anti-competitive impact, with access to the included islands significantly cheaper for visitors than it is for those islands not involved. This potential impact is accentuated by the 30 month duration of the pilot, enough time to consolidate visitor habits.
The coming rise in CalMac fares, while below inflation, can be imposed only on the islands already excluded from the RET scheme. This compounds what most see as an initial injustice in the imbalance of treatment of Scotland’s islands. THe islands understand that a pilot is a pilot – but an all-but three year pilot with significant competitive advantage for those included remains a serious concern.
Isle of Coll publishes RET fares for CalMac ferry
The Argyll Isle of Coll is included in the Scottish Government’s thirty month Road Equivalent Tariff (RET) pilot scheme focused largely on the Wester Isles. RET subsidises ferry fares to islands in the scheme, reducing costs to the equivalent of travelling the same distance by road. The island has now published the RET fares for the Oban-Coll CalMac ferry route, showing the very significant discount.
McGrigor’s addresses Scottish Parliament on ferry services
Jamie McGrigor, ‘List’ MSP whose area of responsibility includes Argyll, has made a speech in Holyrood on the Transport Committee’s report on ferry services. In it he pays tribute to the work of former Labour Transport Minister Sarah Boyack who first mooted the need for integrated transport services; and to SNP Highland Councillor, Roy Pedersen for his work on developing the Government’s Road Equivalent Tariff (RET) scheme subsidising ferry travel to the islands – or, for the time being, to some of the islands in the current RET pilot.
As with most politicians, while he was on his feet, Mr McGrigor took the opportunity to raise matter affecting other interests in the Argyll constituency. We reproduce his speech below.
‘Presiding Officer, I welcome today’s debate and many aspects of the Transport Committee’s report which as others have pointed out is the first major inquiry into ferry services carried out by a Committee of this Parliament. Ferry services play a massive role throughout my Region of the Highlands and Islands and I hope this Committee report will influence the Scottish Government as it conducts its own review of ferry services.
The Committee’s recommendations on timetabling are important and I am sure all of us agree that CalMac needs to look at what can be done to lengthen the sailing day to maximise commuting opportunities from the islands.
The Committee also talks about achieving better integration of transport services and we would all want to see this- it was first a pledge of the first Transport Minister after devolution Sarah Boyack and there is much still to do.
The Committee makes a number of positive suggestions in relation to the Scottish Government’s ferries review and, crucially, talks about the need for new thinking. I wonder if Ministers will be able to confirm that their review will utilise the views of the private sector, not just in its consultation, but in the make up of any review steering group? The review team needs to be made up of more than CalMac and civil service representatives. The private ferry sector, which has shown its dynamism and ability to deliver on a number of routes in Scotland, has a very big part to play in the improvement of our country’s ferry services.
I read with interest the report’s section on the Road Equivalent Tariff scheme and I agree with the comments expressed effectively by the Scottish Islands Federation that while the scheme is to be welcomed, “the pilot scheme will mean that all the other islands will be disadvantaged in comparison with those that will receive the benefits of RETs.” I was in the Uists this summer and my constituents there are looking forward to the beginning of the scheme in October. But my constituents on some of the other islands, such as Colonsay, Mull and the Northern Isles, feel let down and badly treated by the SNP government and it is incumbent on me as their representative to voice these concerns. The considerable length of the pilot- which is identified as an issue of concern in the report- means that Argyll & Bute Council is right to say that ‘if monitoring of the pilot shows that tourism has been displaced from islands that are not included in the scheme, the Government will have to consider how to redress the balance.” Fragile communities like Colonsay simply cannot afford to wait until the end of the scheme in 2011 if we see their economies badly affected next summer.
And while I am talking about fragile communities, I want to talk about the economic problems facing Campbeltown and Kintyre as we face the possibility of the loss of up to 100 well paid jobs if Vestas withdraws from the area. The campaign to secure the reintroduction of the Campbeltown-Ballycastle ferry, which has cross party support, has been fighting for years but we need to see a decision from Ministers without delay- even more so now. It has been suggested that the lack of better ferry services was a contributory factor towards the possible closure of Vestas but I think everyone would agree that we are simply not going to attract new jobs and investment to Kintyre unless we see better transport links. The Campbeltown-Ballycastle ferry has the potential to open up tourism in this part of Argyll. I will also be raising with Ministers tomorrow at Question Time the possible introduction of a new mainland-to-mainland ferry service between Campbeltown and Ayrshire. I wonder if Ministers will agree with me that such a new route could take a significant amount of freight from the roads and open up markets for Kintyre companies?
During my summer tour I tried to take the Council-run ferry to the Island of Luing. Unfortunately the Council was on strike that day so the ferry was off- something which frustrates Luing residents and makes them rightly worried about what would happen in a health emergency. I had a positive meeting with the Minister and the Luing Fixed Link Action Group just before recess and the Minister pledged to engage with Argyll & Bute Council on this issue- I would be grateful for any updates from the Minister.
In conclusion Presiding Officer, there is much in the Committee’s report that is positive and useful and therefore I thank the members of the Committee for their work on it. The government’s own review will now be the focus and expectations are high- the viability and economic success of dozens of remote and often fragile communities depend on it. I commend the comments made by SNP Councillor Roy Pedersen- who has been so influential over RET policy- that there is ‘a lot of scope for the private sector to contribute to ferry services in Scotland. The current tendering system seems almost designed to inhibit the private sector in contributing.” I also commend his submission to the European Commission on state aid rules and hope it will help to guide Ministers. I look forward to debating the results of the Minister’s review and hope they will actually deliver the changes in the areas where we have concerns.’
Islay islanders petition for ferry review and immediate subsidy
Islanders on the Isle of Islay are petitioning the Scottish Government to review the ferry service from Kennacraig on mainland Argyll to Islay. They join another of their island group – Colonsay – in expressing concern over the exclusion of almost all of the Argyll islands from the recently introduced Road Equivalent Tariff scheme (RET). This scheme provides a subsidy to bring ferry fares to the cost of a road journey for the equivalent distances involved. At the moment it is a pilot scheme and the controversy has arisen over its application only to the Western Isles and the inshore Hebridean islands, including Coll but excluding the other Argyll islands. The pilot scheme lasts for thirty months and the anxieties of the excluded islands focus on the negative economic impact they may face with visitors liely to choose to visit the islands with cheaper access and building a three year relationship with those advantaged islands. For more information and to sign the petition, should you choose to do so, visit the Islay website.