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Plenary, 26 Mar 2003

26 Mar 2003 · S1 · Plenary

Item of business

Island Transport

Scott, Tavish LD Shetland Watch on SPTV

I have had that holiday on a Greek island in self-catering accommodation—with my wife, I may add—for the cost of flying to Shetland. As Margaret Ewing said, such high costs are faced by residents of the island and by business. However, they are also faced by the public sector, at public expense. NHS Shetland's bill for travel by patients and staff to the Scottish mainland is some £1.5 million every year. For all the islands together, the national health service bill is some £4 million. If councils, enterprise companies and the rest of the public sector are included, the take from the public purse rises to some £6 million.

Mrs Ewing's example of a holiday is relevant. However, I feel as strongly, if not more so, about the people who have to travel—at short notice—to a family funeral. That is particularly distressing. The cost, when added to the inevitable difficulties of those circumstances, is significant.

Tourism is also constrained by the cost of flying to and from the islands. At a time when I see economic change in my constituency—as across the Highlands and Islands—it is particularly important that tourism be grown and energised. That involves reducing the cost of flying and enabling people to travel more easily and more affordably to the islands.

Public service obligations, which have been part of the debate for some time, can and do address the issues of reliability, regularity and affordability. The case has been made, extremely well, in my view, by HITRANS, the Highlands and Islands strategic transport partnership—many members were at its recent presentation in Edinburgh. HITRANS found that the existing services are "marginally profitable", but only at the expense of fares that are

"holding back the social and economic development of Scotland's peripheral regions."

For me, that alone is reason enough for us to consider carefully the HITRANS proposals, specifically on the use of public service obligations.

HITRANS set out in its proposals a plan to use PSOs to specify increased services, providing better links right across the Highlands and Islands. It calculates that, to reduce the average fare by 33 per cent and to improve the service, the Scottish Executive would have to provide an annual subsidy of just under £10 million. However, I suggest to Parliament and to the Deputy Minister for Enterprise, Transport and Lifelong Learning that, if one deducts the cost of existing PSOs on west coast services and takes into account the savings on the public sector travel bill and the extra passenger revenue, the net extra cost to the public purse would be considerably less. I have long argued that, if fares come down and services improve, more people will use those services, which will increase the revenue and therefore the amount of money available within the services.

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Plenary, 26 Mar 2003

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