Causeways may not be the answer for North Isles
(From The Orcadian dated February 8, 2001)

The construction of expensive causeways between the North Isles to secure their economies may not be the right answer for Orkney.

Instead, fully subsidised and improved inter-island air services could be the way forward - helping to reverse depopulation trends.

The views were expressed this week by director of technical services in the Western Isles Mr Murdo Murray, who has first hand experience of providing causeways - known as fixed links - between islands.

Orkney Islands Council have agreed to look into the feasibility of providing fixed links in the North Isles and during his visit, Mr Murray met with the council as well as the communities of Westray and Papay.

Mr Murray said the situation in the Western Isles with its linear geography was very different to Orkney, which he described as a hub surrounded by satellites.

"It is difficult to do it without the linear linkages," he said. "When you are doing it simply between islands without getting anywhere it is a very very expensive way and difficult to justify. When you have a linkage that gets through the island chain that is different."

A better solution, said Mr Murray, would be to subsidise all the inter-island air services and link the improved service with a ferry service that concentrated more on carrying cars and freight rather than passengers.

"It is more cost-effective to use the air services. I suggest, on what I have seen to date, that the most cost-effective way would be to support the inter-island air service.

"Probably the way forward is to look at strengthening the inter-island air services through PSO (Public Service Obligation) mechanisms."

He added: "The same solutions are not necessarily appropriate for this sort of location."