Inter-island air service

Sir,

In reply to the letter from dear leader Campbell regarding my letter titled "Hot air over plane service" I stand corrected. I stated that the council let the Barra - Benbecula service go without a murmur and the dear leader confirmed that in fact it was the council that dropped the service, a service that was popular with tourist but also hugely beneficial for locals going up to Stornoway. Silly me, I forgot to mention that. This, remember, from a council that want to be given the power to control an inter-islands service.

Mr Campbell also states that this was as a result of feedback which indicated a stronger support for the Barra - Glasgow connection, however once again, other than his word, he presents no evidence for this. At every meeting involving the public, the desire to keep both services was indicated in very vocal terms by the public and if anyone wanted to remove the Barra-Benbecula route they certainly did not state so publicly.

Mr Campbell also stated that it was as a result of extra summer flights in 2014 that convinced ministers that there was a need for extra flights. Barra had been asking for these for years, with no help from the council. Indeed the fact that local people had difficulty booking flights most summers was sufficient indication that there was a demand. To that end, when the people of Barra met with representatives from the various departments, a meeting that the council or its representatives failed to attend, they asked for double flights Monday to Saturday with one flight on Sunday. This is precisely what we got. For the council to take credit for that is, to put it mildly, disingenuous.

However, to get back on track. The purpose of my initial letter was to question the council’s suitability to have anything to do with inter island air transport.

Interestingly, my letter had barely been published when it emerged that to make further savings, the council were looking at removing the Benbecula - Stornoway route entirely and also to close schools in Barra and Uist, now withdrawn from the agenda, no doubt because of the adverse publicity.

Now I ask this, if a council can get itself into situations where it has to spend thousands out of its budget on legal fees due to various court cases; it could not make a profit on scrap metal removal when the price was high and it was economically viable for scrap merchants to come out to the islands with empty lorries, returning to the mainland with them full and them still turn over a profit; is that council fit for purpose, never mind fit to be in control of an inter-island air service?

Yours

Letter: Council "disingenuous" over inter-island air service

16 January 2016