I have been asked to look into the effect of the late arrival of the national newspapers from the mainland on islanders and on businesses. If you have a story you would like to share, please call me on 01851 720802 or email me at [email protected].
Monthly Archives: April 2013
Salmon company staff were ‘not bullied’ to support planning bids
54
Many of the representations made in support of an application for an extension of fish farming operations in Argyll were lodged by people who work for the applicant fish farm company, it has emerged.
The company has denied it is bullying or in any way forcing its staff to support them in their bids and has strongly defended their workers’ rights to make representations to local authorities in support of them.
However, campaigners against fish farms say Scottish Salmon Company (SSC) is acting unethically and have vowed to publicly name and shame the staff if it ever happens again.
Research by local people in Argyll found that at least 12 managers and staff of SSC had written to Argyll and Bute Council to support its two recent planning applications for an extension to an existing fish farm at Loch Striven and the formation of a new one.
They believe many of them are staff based in the Western Isles.
One local objector in Colintraive said: “Most people here in the village are outraged by the fact the Scottish Salmon managers wrote in. Imagine how people on Lewis would feel if the whole of Cowal would support the development of a giant wind farm on Lewis next to Callanish and Carloway, giant fish farms in front of their houses or a nuclear power station on the Butt of Lewis – or that managers of wind farm companies would write in for the giant wind farm application on Lewis.”
Others suggested representations to the council were either a sign that the staff were the happiest and most loyal of any firm in Scotland or that they were being bullied by management to lodge the representations or even that the company had merely used their names.
A spokeswoman for Scottish Salmon flatly denied that, saying: “At no point in this or any other case has it been the Scottish Salmon Company’s policy to submit letters of support for planning applications on behalf of staff.
“Any expressions of support posted on the Argyll and Bute Council website are the business of the individual correspondent and there should be no suggestion of any lack of transparency if that person has been clear about their identity and the reasons that they support the application in question.”
She added: “Frankly, your suggestion that “bullying” or any sort of improper behaviour has been involved is wholly offensive, as it is unwarranted. Any staff member who chooses to respond to a planning application is free to do so on their own terms and we are grateful to any who have taken the time to do so.”
Asked whether the managers and staff who had written to support the Argyll bid had actually ever been to the Loch Striven site to judge the merits of the application, the spokeswoman declined to explain.
SSC was unaware of any arrangements that excluded their own staff members from status as members of the public with a right to respond to planning applications as they see fit, she insisted.
However, campaigners Outer Hebrides Against Fish Farms (OHAFF) said this was far from the first time that SSC applications had been found to have been supported in the main by its own staff and business contacts.
OHAFF organiser Peter Urpeth said: “This is very poor practice and it reflects badly on the Scottish Salmon Company. It is a democratic right to support an application but it should not be a platform for gerrymandering.
“The planning consultation system is not meant for people who will benefit in their own pocket. If I apply to build a house, how would people feel if me and my family and my builder wrote in to support our own application?
“It would not be right, ethically. It needs to stop and we will name and shame those concerned in the future, if necessary.”
Meanwhile, Argyll and Bute Council took the line that anyone can submit comments, either in support or objection, to a planning application. It said all representations are carefully considered by planners when preparing reports.
“The content of a representation is the most important issue, though. While officers will note where a comment has come from, their main priority is the material planning consideration.”
However, the council may scrutinise exactly who is supporting bids, as it added: “It is worth noting that planning applications which attract a significant level of comments are dealt with at public hearings and the weighting attached to comments will be for members of the planning, protective services and licensing committee to decide.”
Where is the RET report?
OUTER HEBRIDES COMMERCE GROUP
15 April 2013
.
Keith Brown
Transport Minister
Transport Scotland
.
Dear Mr Brown
Last July at a meeting in Stornoway you met with representatives from the Outer Hebrides Commerce Group and Comhairle nan Eilean Siar. At that meeting we all agreed to co-operate and contribute to a study looking at the impact the withdrawal of “RET” is having on our communities. The Report undertaken by MVA Consultancy was finalised some months ago, but as yet, we have no date or confirmation for publication.
The membership of the OHCG is deeply concerned with this unnecessary delay. Comhairle nan Eilean Siar, Highlands and Islands Enterprise and the OHCG all assisted your Department and provided support and data so that a credible and properly informed Report could be published.
On behalf of the membership of the OHCG and ordinary families of the Outer Hebrides we urge you to publish, without delay, the Report’s findings. The report is a public document – paid for by British taxpayers – and as such should be in the public domain.
It is worth noting that since we last met our communities, businesses and families have had to contend with another massive 10% hike in ferry fares: this latest increase in your ferry-tax is over and above the 50% increase your Government imposed a year ago.
We trust you understand our growing frustration and would greatly appreciate your immediate intervention.
Yours sincerely
.
David Wood
Vice-Chairperson
Outer Hebrides Commerce Group
RET is dead. Long live RET, say business campaigners
The economy of the Outer Hebrides has been dealt another devastating blow with the implementation of a 10% increase on all commercial traffic to and from the islands, according to the organisation that represents island business interests.
David Wood of Woody’s Express, the vice-chairman of the Outer Hebrides Commerce Group, said this week that the Scottish Government had ignored frequent and consistent pleas not to impose a double digit increase on ferry fares.
“From the beginning of this month every business and family importing and exporting goods is paying an additional 10% – this is over and above the 50% increase imposed last year. Sadly, this is not the end of the ferry tax scandal – they also intend imposing another massive fare increase next year.”
Taking his hat off as a mark of respect, Mr Wood said grimly: “The SNP’s much-vaunted policy of RET is well and truly dead.”
He said the SNP betrayed the original intention of reducing fares for islanders. The OHCG was disgusted with the Scottish Government’s behaviour.
“We have enjoyed support from most island councillors – sadly those with a direct line to the Edinburgh Government have been posted missing. Every family and business is now paying this SNP-imposed ferry tax.”
Pupils risk injury as windows wrongly fitted in new island schools
Update – the comhairle said that Bayble, Barvas, Balivanich and Daliburgh are the ones affected by the window problems.
MOST of the windows in new primary schools in the Western Isles must be inspected and reinstalled after several incidents which could have seriously injured pupils.
It has emerged that, possibly because they have been installed the wrong way round, rooflight windows have dropped without warning into classrooms and other internal rooms and pupils and staff have escaped injury only by chance. 
Education chiefs were also aghast to learn that many windows at four of the recently-completed island schools, part of a project costing up to £70 million, have been installed inside out with the toughened panes – designed to withstand blows from footballs and other playground missiles – being on the inside.
Fears for pupils’ and staff safety heightened among island education chiefs recently after one of the wrongly-installed toughened panes shattered in an incident which the council has mysteriously described in internal reports as “a spontaneous fracture”.
Western Isles Council last night (WED) stressed it would not be paying anything extra for the detailed inspection and repair programme which must now be undertaken by builder FMP, a collaboration of three Northern Ireland construction firms Farrans (Construction) Ltd, H&J Martin and Patton Group (which is now in administration).
The suspicion is that a series of window defects have resulted in many unsafe installations throughout the schools but the precise cause and extent is still not known. The report of the findings will should be ready next week.
Among other ongoing defects reported by teachers at the largest school, the Nicolson Institute in Stornoway which opened to pupils last August, are failures of the automatic ventilation systems, failure to detect the presence of people by automated lighting systems, classroom smartboards being installed too low to be seen by pupils and heating pipes clanking so noisily that lessons have had to be abandoned. Many reports have also been filed about leaking roofs at the schools.
One teacher wrote in a report in December: “Our school looks fantastic from the outside. Inside, it is a different story with a cheap plasticky finish on everything and a different system failing with almost daily regularity.
“This is not just a series of minor snagging problems. I’m afraid to say that this is a shoddy mess.”
It also emerged that two rooflights suddenly fell into the Balivanich School on Benbecula in separate incidents in the last few months. According to a source on Benbecula, the window crashed onto the desk of the school secretary. However, it happened on a Saturday so the office was unoccupied.
Three weeks ago, a similar incident happened at Sgoil an Rubha, the new school at Bayble on Lewis.
The islands’ council confirmed that the detailed inspection which it has now ordered, and which may eventually cost scores of thousands of pounds, will include the following:
- A photo survey of all the rooflights prior to works
- The removal of pressure plates, trims and weather tapes
- A photo survey of existing clearance and spacings
- The removal of the glazing units which will then be checked for defects before being reinstalled properly
A full report on the findings of the inspection will be produced by FMP on all the works. In the meantime, the council insisted, protective measures are in place at all rooflights.
There has been a lot of recent negotiation over whether there was a need to reverse the windows which were found to be toughened on the inside.
The council said: “The current specification in terms of the lower pane being toughened meets the guidance and British Standards. However, in consultation with the designers, it has been agreed to reverse the glazing panels during the inspection works.
“This change to specification will still comply with British Standards but will also give the additional protection of an inner pane of laminate glass in the unlikely event of a further case of spontaneous fracture of the toughened glass.”
The new schools each secured Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM) Excellent accreditation, one of the most comprehensive and widely-recognised measures of a building’s environmental performance. That was before the window flaws were spotted.
The four island schools where almost every window will have to be checked and reinstalled are at the 100-pupil West Side Primary School at Barvas, the 150-pupil Balivanich Primary School on Benbecula, the 175-pupil Point Primary School at Bayble, Isle of Lewis and the 90-pupil Daliburgh Primary School on South Uist.
The builders have so far not responded to a request for comment.
Cancer patient has potential transfusion problems as sources claim SNP could have saved the inter-island service but sat on their hands
A patient with cancer on Barra may not get blood for her transfusions at the right temperature because of the decision to axe the inter-island flights, it has been claimed.
Angus MacNeil MP has now written to council leader Angus Campbell asking him to look urgently into reversing, due to new emerging health issues, the damaging decisions taken to axe inter island flights.
Meanwhile, claims have emerged that the service subsidy was axed because – under the council scoring system – the refusal by SNP councillors to take part in the process meant there were too few points to keep it.
The MP is urging him to restore the service from Stornoway to Benbecula to five days a week, with two services each day and then to ensure that the smaller communities and more distant from the main services are also treated fairly by restoring the Barra to Benbecula link.
The council is the only body in the islands that receives public money from the Government for Air Transport services, says Mr Macneil.
He said that with the council damaging its own reputation, surely in quieter moments they are regretting savagely axing the inter-island flights which, he said, was the biggest blow to island transportation in 40 years.
“The idea that a flight three days a week between Benbecula and Stornoway is adequate would not even be considered by the most aloof civil servant in Edinburgh which make the Comhairle’s position all the more ridiculous. Therefore, I would urge the Comhairle to get the Stornoway Benbecula service up to five days as soon as possible and follow suit with the Benbecula to Barra service. Everybody deserves a right to fairness regardless of where they live in the islands.
“I have been spoken to by a cancer patient in Barra, Margaret Currie, who tells me that blood she might need for transfusions might not arrive on Barra within its ambient temperature, due to the time taken to transport it, which means that in a weakened state, Mrs Currie, due to decisions by the Comhairle, would have to travel for blood.
Now I know that the Comhairle didn’t mean this to happen and probably didn’t consider it would happen, which is exactly the point. This was a hasty and ill-judged decision by the Comhairle based on one voting round with only a few weeks’ notice. At the moment, blood which requires complex screening processes can only come three days a week.
It is now being claimed that the axe fell because the SNP councillors failed to indicate the level of savings they wanted. A source said: “If the SNP group had indicated the savings they wanted, there would have been enough points to secure the air service.
“This needs to be explained to the public. If they want to know who is responsible, I suggest they ask the SNP group of members why they refused to take part and use their power to keep the service.
“The public hand-wringing and the blame shifting by the SNP now shows they are deceiving the public. They must admit it is only their fault.”
Meanwhile, the MP is writing to health secreary Alex Neil to perhaps build a link for blood with Glasgow because he says there are real difficulties for patients and medical staff now that the inter-island transport links have been broken by the Comhairle.
Cllr Donald Manford of Barra added: “In light of this, the Comhairle who received money for transportation and have walked from the responsibility, have to think again. Health and social issues seemed to have been of little concern in the bean counting exercise.”
Pressure on councillors mounts as Outer Hebrides Commerce Group accuses them of failing in their duty
The main transport campaign group in the Western Isles has come out and urged the islands council to do all it can to restore a five-day air link between Benbecula and Stornoway.
The Outer Hebrides Commerce Group CG insists there is not just a demand but a need for a five-day air service and it says some councillors have failed in their duty to ensure that the service was retained.
Speaking after a meeting with council leader Angus Campbell, OHCG co-ordinator Gail Robertson said: “We explained to Cllr Angus Campbell in clear and unambiguous terms the social and economic need for a five-day-a-week air service between Benbecula and Stornoway. We urge that the comhairle work and liaise with other public sector agencies to find a solution for the unacceptable situation that’s emerged.
“At a time of economic challenge the last thing our economy needs is a reduction in air transport links.”
Also attending the meeting was Norman MacAskill of Drimore Farm, South Uist. Mr MacAskill said they needed these services and they expect all councillors to work sensibly and to put posturing to one side and co-operate.
“We were dismayed to learn that if the islands’ six SNP councillors had participated in the budget priority system the comhairle uses, these services would never have been axed. For them not to have taken part in the scoring system was a dereliction of duty and they should now work with all to restore our air links.”
OHCG said communities need clarity and truthfulness, public posturing secures nothing.
“We now urge the comhairle to re-open discussion with Loganair and other agencies to see if these harmful cuts can be reversed.”
Who is to blame as knock-on from inter-island axe begins to bite? “Blaming the public simply will not do.”
Angus MacNeil MP has written to Business Secretary Vince Cable asking to cut Royal Mail costs by also carrying the daily papers to Lewis Harris and Uist and Benbecula. Newspapers in the islands are now being delivered by ferry because of increased freight charges by the carrier Loganair.
The MP said: “It is of course disappointing that daily newspapers will not be arriving in most of the islands until lunchtime, these changes affect islands from Eriskay to Lewis, with Barra unaffected due to a different distribution route.”
He has written to Cable to see if there is a possibility of combining the mail flight with the papers which could cut the cost of both services.
“Further, many people like to get their papers in the morning and for some people, especially pensioners, getting the papers can be almost a morning ritual. This social benefit combined with the obvious advantage to the shops to have papers on the shelves before they become history, further illustrates good sound reasons for at least exploring the possibility of the Royal Mail charter plane also carrying newspapers.
“It seems eminently sensible that a plane coming over with the Royal Mail, daily, should take over the newspapers. This could be a win-win situation; it would be a way of reducing costs for the Royal Mail, something Government is constantly worried about, and ensuring that newspapers are delivered to the islands at a reasonable time.”
Meanwhile, Barra member Donald Manford has pointed the finger at the council leadership. He said: “The calamitous implications of council axing Uist and Barra flights, continues to escalate. Directly and indirectly over 20 flights in total are lost, including connections between Stornoway, Inverness and Edinburgh. How much more will be lost while the council howls “it’s not our fault”?
“Council leader Angus Campbell informed the Cabinet Secretary that, while he was sad at having to withdraw the service, that is what his public consultation told him. Blaming the public simply will not do. It is now undeniable that public money has been provided to the council for air services and that the council transferred the money elsewhere.
“I commend MSP Alasdair Allan for seeking an urgent meeting with the newspaper industry’s distributors, to try and resolve this problem. Credit also to Angus MacNeil MP for contacting Secretary of State, Vince Cable MP, to urge him to look at the Royal Mail system to improve communication and make cost savings.
“I further urge the council to reconsider its decision to axe the services. Failing that, it could apply to transfer to government the transport powers it has abdicated, in order that alternative forms of delivering the transport can be investigated.”
Huge business opportunity for someone as islands’ paper plane is grounded by hefty fees which would add delivery charge of £6 to each copy
Readers in the Western Isles will have to wait until at least the afternoon from now on to get their favourite newspapers in their hands.
Publishing industry chiefs claim a planned hike in air charter charges would have cost them about £6 to send each copy of the thousands of daily newspapers to the Outer Hebrides.
The hunt is now on to find a lower-cost carrier or an alternative to the early morning “paper plane” which could see bundles being sent by seaplane or even by speedboat.
For the last three years, daily papers were flown from Aberdeen to Stornoway and Benbecula using a Loganair charter flight. Now the plan is take to them by road instead to Ullapool to catch the ferry to Stornoway which will arrive just before lunch.
Extra distributors have been hired to take the papers directly to outlying areas of Lewis and to the Isle of Harris. A postbus will take them to Uig. But many readers in the islands will not get their daily paper until late afternoon or, if there are any delays, until the following day.
That has angered many people in the islands, where newspaper readership is thought to be higher than the national average, who claim that it is a serious step back.
Retired mill worker Malcolm Mackay, 74, has been heading into Stornoway six mornings a week for a decade for newspapers for himself, his wife Ina, and four neighbours. He said: “I’m disgusted. This is the kind of shoddy service we had in the 1950s. You get the impression the people who make these decisions don’t care about the Western Isles. The service to Shetland of course is continuing with no problems.”
Island councillor Rae Mackenzie stormed: “It is extremely disappointing to find out that another service is being hit in these islands. It is just weeks since the council withdrew air services to the Southern Isles, taking us back 40 years, and now it seems we are going to have a service for the delivery of daily papers which turns the clock back to the 1950s. Scottish newspapers will be available in foreign countries earlier that we can receive them in our own country!
“Whereas the rest of the world is looking for faster, more efficient, services, we seem to be going backwards. This is out of the hands of the local shops and suppliers. Is it not possible for both Loganair,and the mainland wholesaler to come to some agreement? After all, no doubt they have made considerable profits in the past from these islands.”
The Scottish Newspaper Society (SNS), which represents all the main daily newspaper publishers, insists it has been trying to find a cost effective way to take the 7,500 daily newspapers to the islands – so far without success.
It has emerged that Glasgow-based Loganair planned to increase the price twice in the near future, virtually doubling the current cost.
SNS director Jim Raeburn explained: “The industry regards it as very important to provide a service as best it can and to have papers selling in the islands at the same price as the rest of the country. However, the cost of a copy of a newspaper delivered by Loganair would on average have risen to about £6.”
Such a price would be completely non-viable, he said, and had forced the industry to look at what they could do. The papers will now be transferred from wholesaler John Menzies in Inverness to the islands by road and ferries.
Bundles of papers for North Uist, Benbecula and South Uist will be sent on the ferry MV Hebrides from Skye to Lochmaddy. Every second day, it arrives later so the papers will not reach the southernmost islands until after the shops shut.
Mr Raeburn brushed off suggestions that they were not serving the islands well. He said: “We are maintaining a service to all of Scotland – the only difference will be time of delivery. We are doing our most to maintain a service and to avoid quite dramatic losses. The element of subsidy that would be needed would be unsustainable.”
He declined to say how much the airline was to charge – saying only it was “a large amount”.
However, Scott McCulloch of News International, the chairman of the SNS distribution committee, confirmed that 7,500 copies were sent to the Western Isles each day. If each one was to cost SNS about £6, that would suggest the airline’s charges were to rise to more than £40,000 a day.
Loganair chief operating officer Phil Preston would not comment on the specific point-of-sale price increases for individual units transported as freight cargo, with air transit only making up one part of the overall distribution network.
He said: “We came to a mutual agreement with the newspaper distribution committee SNS to end our Stornoway and Benbecula contract. The dedicated freight charter service, which we have been providing for SNS since the previous supplier Highland Airways went out of business, has become unsustainable for both parties.
“The contract with SNS was operating at a heavily discounted rate, following the collapse of Highland Airways, in anticipation of finding customers wanting to move freight off the island by air on the return leg of the freighter’s journey. We are disappointed no such customer has been available in the three years which the service was operational and the cost of the empty return leg to Aberdeen was a major factor in this decision.”
There will be no job losses at Loganair as a result of the decision and together with SNS, they had worked to find an alternative distribution channel by air but SNS had decided to use the CalMac ferry service. The changes will have no impact on any of the airline’s scheduled passenger services or their dedicated Royal Mail freight deliveries to the islands.
Mr Preston added: “Loganair still has a strong relationship with SNS, using their services to supply the Shetland Islands with newspapers and we look forward to working with them well into the future.”
Stornoway councillor Angus McCormack thought people in the islands were very keen to have a daily paper to read but were equally keen to read it at as early a time in the day as possible. He said: “I would welcome some discussion around just exactly what Loganair is looking for in terms of the return trip to see if a solution might be found. I understand that moves are afoot to speak with the distributor.”
Uist councillor David Blaney questioned why the papers could not be put on Flybe’s scheduled passenger flights from Glasgow to Benbecula. He said: “For long enough papers would always share the passenger flight from Glasgow as they carried on doing on Saturdays and Sundays. So I do wonder why papers to the Uists and Benbecula cannot revert to sharing direct flights from Glasgow as they always used to.”
Meanwhile Mr Raeburn conceded that delivery of newspapers to the islands was always loss-making but something the industry had been happy to do until costs began to spiral.
He said: “We don’t blame Loganair. They say the flight was a serious lossmaker so they cannot bear that any more than we can. However, we do appreciate the effect on readers. As far as a solution is concerned, we have an open mind. If there was a transportation solution which was financially viable, the industry would look at it.
“Seaplanes operate to Oban. You never know.”
McCormack v Manford – the latest
Firstly a statement midweek from Councillor Angus McCormack
Manford accused of misleading comhairle and compromising officers
Councillor Angus McCormack has reiterated his claim that Councillor Donald Manford, the SNP Group Leader, misled a meeting of the Comhairle on 6 December 2012, and says he will pursue the matter further given the ‘overwhelming’ evidence proving Cllr Manford’s culpability.
Cllr Manford is accused of repeatedly misleading colleagues and compromising the professional integrity of senior officers when he protested that the advice which was given to him by officers at the meeting regarding the competency of his motion on school transport, was not the advice he had received from them earlier that day.
Despite Cllr Manford’s refusal to accept that he has anything to answer for, Cllr McCormack claims that the evidence against him is overwhelming and cannot be refuted.
Cllr McCormack said: “Further to my formal question last week to the Comhairle leadership regarding Cllr Manford’s conduct in December, I will be pursuing this matter to a satisfactory conclusion. I find it unacceptable that having misled members and senior officers, Cllr Manford refuses to apologise for his behaviour which has fallen well below the standards expected of elected members, not least an office-bearer and a Vice-Chairman of a Comhairle committee.
“If behaviour like this is left unchecked, it sets a dangerous precedent that will allow further breaches of conduct about which the leadership of the Comhairle will be powerless to do anything.”
Cllr McCormack concluded: “I am considering what further steps to take in order to have this blatant abuse of public office addressed.”
.
Then, a weekend reply from Councillor Donald Manford
Dramatic Developments on Safe Routes to School Controversy.
The Council’s school travel policy provided an appeal mechanism in 2012 to consider where walking routes to school were unsafe. It was immediately apparent that parents had major concerns about the transparency and fairness of appeals.
A report to council’s Audit and Scrutiny Committee 5th December 2012 informs how appeals on the safety of walking are considered. The risks associated with pedestrian and vehicle conflict resulting from road defects. Routes with no footways but narrow verges to have the width of the carriageway, traffic volumes/types and visibility applied. The report lists 7 walking safety criteria, the 3rd of which is the availability of a footway.
It has now emerged that the existence of a bus is a major criteria, completly absent from the report to “inform members”, the absent criteria also appears to override all other criteria. Whatever the ethics of a policy which requires payment to secure a child’s safety. The most pressing question is would the large numbers of appeals have been embarked upon if it had been known the appeals may have been pre-determined by the existence of a bus on the route?
How much time, energy and money was spent on potentially fruitless appeals? This can only be properly ascertained by enquiring of every parent/guardian or child who was put through the stress of these appeals.
It is no secret that I have been pursuing and will continue to pursue answers, to ensure effective and fair appeals mechanisms which I believe to be a purpose of an Audit and Scrutiny committee. Councillor MacCormack knew that this damning evidence was about to be exposed and while I am grateful to him for unwittingly raising the profile of the questionable appeals process, his methods are sad and unfortunate.
I utterly reject his scurrilous accusations and contrived conclusions and I sadly feel required to pursue further guidance on Cllr MacCormack’s own conduct in regard to the council’s Standing Orders.
