Orkney Farmers urged to lobby Executive over vet lab closure
By Brian Flett
(From The Orcadian dated February 8, 2001)

The vice-principal of Scottish Agricultural College (SAC), Professor Bill McKelvey, has made a spirited plea for Orkney's farming community to put political pressure on the Scottish Executive Rural Affairs Department (SERAD) to meet the cost of upgrading the SAC's Thurso vet lab.

And he announced that, because of the political pressure which had come from Orkney, Shetland, Caithness and Sutherland, the SAC had agreed to have a two month "cooling-off" period in which they would take another look at the closure decision.

Addressing an open meeting in Kirkwall last Wednesday night, Professor McKelvey explained that the projected deficit facing the college in the coming year had forced the board to recommend closing the Thurso veterinary centre.

He said: "I'm a vet, so the decision was extremely painful," explaining that the SAC had employed 1,400 staff in 1995, but over the last four years 400 jobs, or almost 30 per cent of the workforce, had been lost. Professor McKelvey pointed out that, until now, these staff had been lost from central functions such administration, finance and teaching, with the veterinary and advisory services protected from cuts.

He explained that on an annual turnover of £50 million, the SAC received support of £18 million from the Scottish Executive, the bulk of which went towards teaching and research work.

But Professor McKelvey said: "Unfortunately since 1996, there has been a downward trend in the amount of funding from the Executive."

In particular, he was concerned that the support to the veterinary service had remained fairly static over many years, only rising from £1.3 million in 1987 to £1.8 million in 1999, on a turnover of just over £8 million.

Local vet, Mr Bob Norquay, asked if SERAD had given any reason for their downward level of funding to the SAC.

Professor McKelvey said that the explanation given was that the agricultural industry should do more to support the work of the college.

Orkney NFU branch chairman, Mr Scott Harcus, noted from Professor McKelvey's figures that although the SAC as a whole was going to make a loss this year, the college's vet division was making a profit.

"It seems odd that you want to make a cut in one of the most profitable parts of your business," he said.

The head of the SAC veterinary division, Mr Alastair Greig, replied that the vet division had made a profit for the last four years, but would not this year. He said that there was expected to be a £71,000 loss in running the Thurso centre. He pointed out that the Thurso lab served Shetland, Orkney, Caithness and Sutherland, and within that area there was estimated to be 14 per cent of all holdings in Scotland. He added that the four counties contained 11 per cent of the total Scottish sheep flock, and eight per cent of the total cattle herd in Scotland.

Mr Greig said he was concerned that despite having such a large density of livestock, the Thurso centre only accounted for four per cent of the SAC's total caseload of work.

Councillor Jim Foubister suggested that although the area only had eight per cent of the total cattle herd, it probably had a very high percentage of the country's breeding herd, the animals which generated most of the disease problems.

Another local vet, Mr John Dearness, explained the low number of post-mortems carried out at the Thurso vet lab was probably because of the difficulties of transporting carcases from places like Orkney to the centre.

"That problem is going to be exacerbated if the Thurso lab is closed and the work done in Inverness. It certainly will not be helped by the move and likely to be made worse," he said.

Mr Greig told the meeting that surveyors had examined the Thurso centre last September, and had estimated that it would take £46,000 to bring it up to a basic standard.

He said that the bigger capital costs of upgrading the Thurso facilities were associated with the creation of a new incinerator unit and loading platform. He said that the difference in cost was between £162,000 for adding a new incinerator to the existing building; and £217,000 for installing an incinerator and boiler in a brand new building. He added that it was that cost which the SAC board did not feel could be justified in view of the predicted deficit.

Burray farmer Mr George Rouse asked where the closure of the lab left the Orkney Livestock Association's screening programme for Bovine Viral Diarrhoea (BVD) which got the go-ahead on the same day as the SAC announced the closure plan?

Mr Greig said the OLA scheme had not been taken into account when the closure decision was made. As far as he was aware the OLA scheme would be spread over two years, and the income from that research project would certainly help the economics of the Thurso centre.

Professor McKelvey said that the "cooling-off" period to look at the closure decision would also give time to confirm arrangements for the OLA screening programme. He accepted that the closure decision had been "somewhat premature" without allowing a consultation period, but the board had agreed to make the announcement first and then take the consequences.

Professor McKelvey told the 50-strong audience that the decision to close the lab had actually been made three months ago, in November, and the decision reported to and sanctioned by the Deputy Rural Development Minister, Ms Rhona Brankin. He said that the SAC board had not wanted to make the closure announcement before Christmas, and so it had been left until January, but he agreed that it came as "terrible timing for OLA." He also hoped that within the next two months, it would be possible to find the capital to improve the lab.

George Rouse felt that the Orkney BVD study and similar kinds of projects would be "only the start of animal health schemes" and that the college's projections for future income from this area of work were "very pessimistic."

Councillor Foubister said to the senior SAC officials: "You've got decreasing revenue, and a problem finding the capital to do up the Thurso lab. Quite frankly, you've given a cast-iron case for basing the unit within Orkney. We have a large part of the breeding herd here, and you could base your main enterprise in Orkney, for which there might be some financial assistance available."

The idea was backed up by Mr Stephen Metcalf of St Ola. He noted that Orkney had the biggest number of vets making use of the existing Thurso centre, so he felt there would be some logic in having the lab based here.

Retired vet Mr Albert Spence felt that the SAC should keep the lab open on animal welfare and food safety grounds, and he believed that pressure should be put on SERAD to find the money to upgrade.

Tory prospective parliamentary candidate for Orkney and Shetland Mr John Firth, felt that this closure announcement demonstrated the need for Orkney and Shetland representatives to serve on the board of SAC.

Professor McKelvey explained that there were five executive directors and nine non-executive directors, three each from the former college regions of Scotland.

Another local vet Mr Gerry Wilson expressed concern that under the current system, facilities for analysing blood samples and so on had been taken away from vet labs like Thurso and were now centralised in Edinburgh.

Mr Greig explained that with the cost of the specialist machines required to do that kind of work, the SAC could not afford to provide separate facilities at all eight vet labs, and instead took the decision to have one accredited testing laboratory in Edinburgh.

Professor McKelvey suggested that the administration of the OLA BVD scheme should be done in Kirkwall, with the database possibly held at the SAC office, but various scenarios were being looked at.

Bob Norquay explained that samples could be sent to many other vet labs, but the results would come back with no interpretation.

"That is only possible with local knowledge, like at the Thurso lab."

John Dearness pointed out that many health schemes had been pioneered by the Thurso centre, because of its location and contact with farmers. He worried that similar schemes could suffer or discontinue, if the Thurso lab were to close, and the good relations built up over the years was lost.

Evie farmer Mr Michael Cursiter, vice-chairman of OLA, explained: "When we were taking the OLA roadshows to various places throughout Orkney last year, one of the key folk who helped me to convince farmers to sign up for the BVD scheme was Sandy Clark (head of the Thurso vet lab). We are relying on his knowledge to get the scheme going. He was also so keen to have the administration for it done at Thurso. How ironic that he is to get his P45 in June, and it was announced on the same day as EU approval for the OLA scheme came through."

Professor McKelvey said: "Unless the contract for a particular scheme is sitting, signed, on the table in front of us, we cannot take that as a commitment that it will go ahead, and we did not know that the OLA scheme was so close to coming on stream."

Albert Spence commented: "Another example of lack of local knowledge!"

He went on: "You said you wanted to close the Thurso centre and service Orkney from Inverness. But do we have any guarantee that the Inverness lab won't go the same way in the future?"

Professor McKelvey replied: "The Government are committed to human health research, and Inverness is already regarded as a centre of excellence into E-coli 0157 research, so I think the lab there is fairly safe. But what we want to do in the next two months is to get enough political pressure to persuade SERAD to come up with the necessary money for improving the Thurso centre. The income from the OLA scheme would cover the predicted operating loss."

He added: "We have had meetings today with CASE (Caithness and Sutherland Enterprise); Orkney Islands Council and Orkney Enterprise. They all sympathise with our financial situation. But the enterprise companies regard it as SERAD's problem. CASE indicated the possibility of European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) assistance, but we would still have to have the first 60 per cent of the funding in place, before an ERDF bid could be made."

Another islands councillor, Westray farmer Stephen Hagan, asked for an assurance that the SAC would look at the options of moving the vet lab to Orkney.

Professor McKelvey replied that from SAC's point of view, trying to win the money to upgrade the Thurso lab from the Scottish Executive Rural Affairs Department (SERAD) would still be their first option. "Then we will look at the Kirkwall option. But let's not get carried away with the idea that SERAD will back the suggestion of basing the vet lab in Orkney."

Major Malcolm Macrae from Finstown noted that the Thurso vet lab had been operating successfully for the past 30 years, and the SAC were looking in the very short term, if they could not afford to find the money to do it up properly. "They should be looking five to ten years ahead," he argued.

Professor McKelvey said: "We haven't been able to persuade our main support agency to come up with the money yet. But if you can, and the closure decision is reversed, then there will be no-one more pleased than us. But it is up to you, to persuade the politicians who could influence SERAD. We've done our damnedest to maintain services to outlying areas. But this time, something has to give."

OLA chairman Mr Alastair Foubister from Holm, asked: "Will you honour the spirit of partnership, and agree to look at Orkney as a base for the vet lab?"

Professor McKelvey replied: "I will give it my assurance. I am only one of 14 other board members. But I doubt if SERAD will support it."

Retired farmer Mr George Stevenson from Finstown, said: "On the question of SAC's funding, if you look back a few years, the college was totally supported by government. It's a bit "pie in the sky" to think that Orkney can take on the funding of such a body. It is clearly the responsibility of the Scottish Executive - nobody else.

We should congratulate the SAC. It has done a good job so far in moving away from total government support. We should now bring pressure to bear on the politicians on behalf of the college."

Orkney Enterprise chief executive Mr Ken Grant, said: "My only concern is what steps are being made to guarantee that the Thurso vet lab will be viable in the future?

Professor McKelvey replied that Caithness NFU were talking to their MP and MSPs at the weekend, and he hoped that Orkney's farming community would do the same with their politicians shortly, making the financial case for upgrading the Thurso centre.

He concluded: "I feel a great willingness here tonight to help. This is the first step in a process. I have some confidence that the OLA scheme will move forward, bringing extra revenue to Thurso."