by LO » Thu Oct 11, 2007 1:08 am
Well regardless of what happened before, for better or for worse we are now dealing with a different lot of politicians so only time will tell. However, for what it is worth I think there was genuine good will amongst politicians of all parties on both sides of the water and we were on the verge of a breakthrough last November before Peter Hain pulled the plug on the Irish funding for reasons that had nothing to do with the ferry.
You certainly have a point about the Civil Service where there has been huge antipathy towards the route on both sides of the water. I think there have been some changes in Edinburgh which may be for the better but I'm not so sure about what is happening over in NI. From my limited experience with them, the guys over there will need some firm direction from their local political leaders (as opposed to Westminster).
I thought long and hard about responding to the story in last week's Courier which really wasn't a story at all but blatant electioneering by certain parties in anticipation of an announcement which in the end wasn't forthcoming. In the end I decided it wasn't worth a stamp. There can be few people who have been following this saga closely who seriously believe that there was any realistic prospect of the ferry running in time for next summer given the tight timescale that would have been required to pull it together. Regardless of which party was elected in May, there was no prospect of any progress until the Northern Ireland Assembly was back up and running. This was the only show in town as Peter Hain had killed the Westminster route stone dead. Given that the ferry was hardly going to be the top priority for the new Assembly there was no chance of an agreement being signed and a successful tendering process taking place in the short window available before all the 2008 tourist literature is printed. Also, with the potential addition of an Ayrshire leg to negotiate, the old tender documents would have to be redrafted to take this into account. In turn, this raises a potential problem in that there is a PSO (Public Service Obligation) for the route between Campbeltown and Ballycastle which allows a subsidy to be paid, whereas the Ayrshire leg could not benefit from this because of existing routes from there to NI. Thus there is a bit of a tightrope to negotiate in terms of bringing Ayrshire into the undertaking without upsetting the PSO status of Campbeltown to Ballycastle. To this end the suggestion in the Courier that all that is required is a couple of signatures is just mischief making.
At present, I think we have to give the current administration the benefit of the doubt.
However if we are still stuck at the same point next year then I think we will finally have to give up on the ferry.
I have to say that it was disappointing to see the ferry issue being used to try and score political points in this way as up to now our politicians have always managed to rise above that and work together towards moving the ferry project onwards. Now that election fever has gone away (hopefully for a few years) perhaps we can take a calmer look at the ferry situation.
To go back to the A83 for a moment, I was heavily involved in the community campaign to get the old Scottish Office to repair and make safe the three sections of road north of Tarbert following the landslides of ten years ago. I can assure you that they didn't even want to spend money on the road when we were cut off from the rest of the world until we resorted to blockading Kilmory with the big lorries and threatening to do the same at the opening of the first Scottish Parliament. While we got a much better result than they were initially willing to concede, we had to fight all the way, and just to show that they retained the upper hand, refused to sort out the narrows at Erines when the machines were virtually on site (there was no budget for it!) That desperate part of the road could have been cheaply and permanently sorted but they dug in their heels to show us who was boss.
While I would support any campaign to sort out the A83 (It goes without saying that I think we should have this done and the ferry as well) I think we have to disabuse ourselves of any idea (implicit in Hitman's initial posting) that we will get a fair hearing with regard to the road. The idea of horse-trading the ferry for the A83 is a non-starter as the Roads people do not see them as interchangeable. Instead, they weight up the A83 against other roads, for example the A82, and decide where to spend their budget. Unfortunately, if you want to change this and force them to make A83 a higher priority, you have to be prepared for a long fight even if you can put together an irresistible case. You need resources such as a campaign team, PR and ability to lobby politicians of all parties and court the media. It can be done as we have previously shown, but it takes time and effort and a determination to stay in for the long haul and this should not be underestimated.
