Luing primary closure

[canUsmellthat]

Spending cuts eh???

So...what does this mean to island dynamics/ politics/ finance???

[NickB]

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And what does it mean to the kids and parents? Seems criminal to shut an island school which is relatively well subscribed (19 kids) when Shetland council are re-opening the school on Papa Stour for a single child. It can't be good for the future of the island - families with young kids won't be keen to move there with all the school hassles associated with the ferry trip.

There's a detailed analysis plus comment on the ForArgyll site HERE

[moonraker]

think you will find that there are people who attend that school from clachan side of the water
take them away the school role is not that big
think its a very good idea
there has to be cut backs makes sense
lets face it easdale kids cope with ferry travel and have done for years..
there ferry is not as capable as the cuan ferry

[Eric the Viking]

Seems criminal to shut an island school which is relatively well subscribed (19 kids) when Shetland council are re-opening the school on Papa Stour for a single child.

The reason for that is pretty straightforward - SIC do rather well from Sullom Voe. Infact Shetlanders reap the benefits in many otherways ways by having a fairly NIMBY free outlook on life.

Perhaps there's a lesson to be learned there?

[NickB]

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Hi Eric, good to see you back.

Your brief post got me thinking - I have always been a huge admirer of what Shetland did with Sullom Voe, and passed through Shetland regularly in the late eighties and early nineties on my way to work on platforms in the East Shetland basin. I am guessing that you are hinting at a parallel between Sullom Voe (and the proposed Viking windfarm levy which will probably replace it) and the current push for windfarms in Argyll.

If Argyll and Bute imposed a serious levy on every MW of windpower installed in the county then we might be talking about an analagous situation, but sadly we are not. Any 'community benefits' currently on offer from Clachan or Raera are purely voluntary and distributed at the whim of the developers and energy companies - and even if the entire Clachan community benefit at its proposed level went to Luing I doubt if it would be enough to keep the school open on its own.

Shetland is a very special place politically and socially. They have prospered for 30 years thanks to their foresight in negotiating the oil levy and manging the funds thus secured. This was an unprecedented deal between a council and big business, and there has been nothing similar anywhere in the UK since. Now the revenue from Sullom Voe is drying up it looks as though it could be replaced with a potential £960 million over 25 years from the giant Viking Energy windfarm.

The Viking farm is ten times the size of Raera, and the population of Shetland is less than a quarter that of Argyll. In addition, Shetland's existing infrastructure is more compact and in better shape. For Argyll to profit in the same way we would need to have 40 - 50 Raera-sized windfarms installed - and of course we would have to have a council with the cojones and skill to take on the energy companies head to head while keeping the Scottish government onside.

It's easy to throw accusations of NIMBYism around but I don't think the cost/benefit sums add up, for this corner of Argyll at this moment in time at least. I think it will be a shame if the community is split over this just because PACT could be seen as a bunch of middle class incomers worried about property prices. There are much more complex isues at stake, financially, politically and environmentally. One part of the comparison is spot on though - the wind turbine companies are every bit as rapacious as the oil companies, no matter how much greenwash they pour over their activities.

[Maggie]

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PACT could be seen as a bunch of middle class incomers worried about property prices.

I feel very uncomfortable about this possible perception.
Can you explain?

mags
x

[NickB]

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It's just some peoples' perception - not mine, I hasten to add. I think that some local people who might otherwise have stood up to be counted may not do so because they feel they don't have much in common with what they see as the typical PACT member. It looks like this is the (unhelpful) line taken by the Oban Times in today's very selective front page report of the meeting.

Further into the paper, to get back to the original topic of the thread, McCaig devotes a third of his column this week to opposing the closure of Luing Primary. Whether you think this will help or not depends on your view of that particular columnist of course . . .