A BID by opposition MSPs to delay plans to withdraw cheaper ferry fares from commercial vehicles going to the Outer Hebrides and Coll and Tire, failed at Holyrood yesterday.
The Road Equivalent Tariff (RET), which has seen savings of up to 50% for small commercial vehicles during a pilot scheme in the Western Isles, is due to be rolled out through the Caledonian MacBrayne ferry network.
But it is being withdrawn from commercial vehicles at the end of March. More than 100 island business united to fight the change. They have won concessions. Vans up to six metres in length will still enjoy RET fares.
Labour Shadow Transport Minister Elaine Murray said: "Prices of many items, including fuel, is higher in more remote towns and villages than in the central belt.
"We are told transportation costs contributed to those higher prices.
"Therefore it must be perfectly feasible that anything that reduces the cost of transportation will help reduce prices."
But Alex Neil, the Cabinet Secretary for Infrastructure and Capital Investment, said an independent analysis of the RET pilot had shown commercial traffic accounted for around 40% of the cost of RET, but there was no evidence of equivalent savings being passed on to consumers in the Western Isles.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article