Comhairle denies “pocketing money” accusation 16/2/13
The leader of Comhairle nan Eilean Siar has slammed Western Isles MP Angus Macneil and Alasdair Allan MSP over the Barra to Uist air service.
The Comhairle is axing the service in light of local government cutbacks but are furious of Isles MP Angus MacNeil saying the council had a “moral duty” to retain the flights.
Mr MacNeil accused the council of “pocketing money from the Scottish Government and not providing the service.”
His remarks angered Angus Campbell, leader of the council who pointed out frozen funding from central government forced its hand.
Mr Campbell highlighted the plane was seldom used by ordinary islanders with passengers either tourists wanting the thrill of landing on the world’s only beach runway or people getting their ticket paid by the health board or council.
He stated: “The subsidy per passenger per one-
“Passenger numbers on the Sound of Barra ferry are more than 20 times those on the air service.”
Mr Campbell hit out at claims the MP’s claims the council ‘pocketed the cash’ and has a ‘moral duty’ to continue the air service.
Angus Campbell said: “I am extremely disappointed at the comments made by our MP in relation to the budget. The use of the term ‘pocketing the money’ shows a disrespect for the democratic process of local government.”
He added: “The matter of the air service to Barra cannot be taken in isolation but has to be part of the priorities expressed to us through the budget consultation process and considered against all the other areas of expenditure which have had to take their share of funding cuts.
“Having had to make £5.5m of savings on top of the £10 million in the past two years meant we had to look at all areas including home care, education and voluntary groups and it is disappointing that our MP has not identified where he would prefer to take that money from which is precisely the task councillors had to do.”
Mr Campbell continued: “I would ask both Mr Macneil and Dr Allan to stand shoulder to shoulder with the Comhairle to campaign for increased funding for the Western Isles to help deal with these issues rather than turning on their democratically elected local council over individual issues they don’t particularly like.
“Many of the cuts that had to be made were not things that any of us would want to do and in many cases were done very reluctantly.
“However councillors stood up to their responsibility and took these difficult decisions and I would suggest Mr Macneil has a moral duty to recognise that fact.”
The comhairle says local authority funding has been frozen so it has to find the cost of inflation, some £3.2m over two years. The Comhairle is also faced with a grant reduction from the Scottish Government of £2.1m by 2014/15 These factors make up the bulk of a budget shortfall of £5.5m.
A recent study showed that in 2011 a third of passengers were sightseers, 14% were NHS employees and 4% were council staff.
Virtually nobody turned up at consultation meetings in the Southern Isles when the air service survey was underway. Reasons may be advertising the meetings in a newspaper when more readers are using online news websites, not advertising in the appropriate newspapers for the Southern Isles, the short notice, as well as little trust that the council would ever be genuinely guided by consultation outcomes.