THE SNP have agreed the Scottish Government must create a dedicated parliamentary committee to oversee progress on improving rural and island transport connectivity and give more consideration to the development of tunnels for linking communities.
A resolution was agreed to at SNP conference calling for the Scottish Government to publish a series of short, medium and long-term objectives to bolster transport connections for those living on islands and in rural communities.
The proposal brought forward by the London Branch also suggested a Scottish Parliament committee should be created to oversee this progress and provide regular scrutiny, and further powers should be devolved to councils to enable them to develop new transport routes, including tunnels.
It was additionally agreed a regional forum with neighbouring countries such as Norway and Ireland should be formed to share ideas and best practices for improving connectivity in the islands.
Western Isles councillor Susan Thomson said ferries, while a key part of island life, will not continue to be sufficient enough by themselves to support islanders as she pushed for the creation of tunnels to be looked at by governments and local authorities.
She told conference: “Robust, reliable transport links other than ferries will be vital to island communities if we are to address the challenges we face.
“The bright lights of big cities have long held sway for our young islanders, but the islands have remained attractive places to live, to return to, to move to, to raise families.
“That’s changing though. Our demographics and the projections for us are grim reading.
“We’ve been in the news too much recently because of problems we face with our ferries. The new ferries when they arrive will help, but ferries alone will not solve the problems for our island communities.
“We all know extreme weather events are becoming normal. This is impacting maritime industry all around the world.
"What it means for us is more ferry cancellations and delays, longer journey times with ferries unable to berth. Without lived experience, it can be hard to imagine the impact on daily life of a cancelled ferry but let me assure you, these connections are lifelines.
“Island communities need infrastructure investment to ensure our potential is realised.”
In September, Shetland Islands Council said plans for four tunnels to connect a number of the Shetland islands are now at an “advanced stage”.
Bosses said they had secured a meeting with Scottish Secretary Alister Jack to discuss inter-island connectivity while talks were also ongoing with the Scottish Government.
Paul Anderson, of the London Branch and originally from the Western Isles, spoke to the resolution and stressed the vital need for investment in transport for the islands and rural areas.
He said: “I believe our rural and island communities have a great future ahead of them but conference, we must invest and we must invest now in their connectivity.
“We would like to see a lot more cooperation in the party and across government, whether that be a Holyrood committee to scrutinise [progress], or even empowering local councils to develop their routes.”
