Sunday 24 April 2011

SSP campaign on Isle of Islay: support RET and publicly-owned ferries!







SSP top of the list candidate Pam Currie was out and about on Islay over the Easter weekend, delivering the SSP’s Highlands and Islands leaflet in Burnside, Bruichladdich, Bowmore, Keils and Port Ellen. We will be back to Islay on Thursday for the hustings in the High School, as advertised in this week’s Ileach!




One of the main issues on Islay is the cost and availability of ferry services to the mainland, currently run by the publicly-owned ferry provider Caledonian MacBrayne. Onward routes to Jura are run by Argyll and Bute Council, with a community-owned ferry service providing an alternative passenger-only link to Tayvallich on the mainland.


The RMT trade union has challenged the Scottish Government on the wording of the current Scottish Ferries Review, which includes a question “Do you agree that we should test the market by tendering some routes on a single basis with the option for the operator to bring in their own vessels?”, as well as proposals to break up the Cal Mac network and allow greater numbers of private ferry operators such as Western Ferries, which runs a competing service on the Dunoon – Gourock route. The review also considers the potential to roll-out the Road Equivalent Tariff on all ferry routes, which would mean that the cost of a ferry journey would cost no more than the equivalent distance by road.


The SSP has long supported the introduction of an RET to all island and peninsula communities, and continues to do so. We believe that the pilot should have taken in all routes from the start, and that it should be rolled out with immediate effect. For Scotland’s island communities, ferries are not a luxury or an optional extra, they are a lifeline service – they need to be properly funded and resourced, and publicly owned.


We understand that many people in island communities – Islay in particular, which has suffered several disruptions to its ferry service in recent times – are frustrated with the service currently provided by Cal Mac. But privatisation is not the answer. To see why, we only need look as far as the railways. The previous Tory government privatised the railways, breaking up a national system and selling it off, bit by bit, to private firms. These firms have made vast profits while pocketing subsidies from the public purse – meanwhile ask any regular rail passenger, and you’ll hear a tale of ever-increasing fares, baffling ticket systems, safety concerns and poor service.


The SSP believes that investment in public transport is vital to creating a greener, fairer Scotland. In the long run, we support a completely free public transport system (read our public transport policy), and we see RET as a crucial step in the right direction, which would promote social inclusion, employment and tourism for our island communities. We support the RMT union and say no to privatisation, yes to RET!

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