IS the Scottish state fit for purpose?
I am lucky enough to have a house on Mull. The Scottish Government recently introduced Road Equivalent Tariff to cut ferry fares to the islands. It recognised that transport and economic health were vitally connected. Without any argument this has massively increased visitor numbers and spend on the island. Yet this autumn the people of Mull face their ferry service being cut to four sailings a day with the first ferry out from Mull at 9am in the morning and the last back to Mull at 4pm (3.30 when you count the queuing). So on the one hand the Scottish public sector recognises the importance of cheap and frequent transport through RET, and on the other cripples the island and its businesses by slashing the number of winter sailings. Baffling one might say. So why is this happening? Well the problem is the pier at Craignure is rapidly deteriorating so it is (apparently) not safe to berth a vessel overnight. So who owns the pier? Well it is owned by another arm of the Scottish public sector – Argyll and Bute Council. Perhaps it doesn't get enough money to keep the pier up? You would be wrong there. Its income (its own figures) over the last three years from pier dues for Craignure is £4.14 million. And its expenditure has been £514 000. So Argyll and Bute Council has banked £3.6m which it has used to plug its budget shortfall while allowing the pier to become borderline unsafe. Why was it allowed to do this? Is there not a requirement for the public sector when controlling an asset to set aside monies for its maintenance as any prudent business would do? It seems not. And if it cannot even get this simple business are they fit to run a whelk stall?
Yet if the people of Mull ask to own and run their own pier they are told "no" by the same public sector that is so manifestly incapable of running it for them? When they protest they are given the brush off in language that would do a middle-ranking Soviet bureaucrat proud. "Not my problem," one body says; "we know best," says another.
One small instance where people's livelihoods are of no consequence to the blank and uninterested behemoth of bureaucracy. One small instance of the utter contempt in which the people they are meant to serve are held by that bureaucracy. One small instance of feckless and jaw-dropping financial incompetence.
How long must we put up with this?
Hugh Andrew,
West Newington House, 10 Newington Road, Edinburgh.
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