£100,000 per day

That's what Tesco in Stornoway is taking.

And it is not all substitution from the Co-op, but will also be impacting on every grocery business operating in the islands, from the Clachan in Leverburgh to Cross Stores in Ness, and everywhere in between.

Before we all rush out and get our Tesco Clubcard numbers tattooed on our foreheads, remember that it is going to have an effect on your local businessmen and the local economy.

According to the notices in the staff room (I am moonlighting as the shelf-stacker on the biscuits aisle) the takings have ranged from £89,000 to £130,000 per day and exceed EXCEED the takings in Kirkwall and Lerwick who are the direct competition in the battle of the managers.

...and how much/little of your spending comes back into the local economy?

Tesco's plans - an update

As you know, Tesco have a 'national pricing' policy, supposedly ensuring that goods are sold at the same price everywhere.

No longer.

According to Shetland Today, reporting on a meeting between Tesco and Lerwick Community Council,

According to the community council, Tesco may depart from its national pricing policy in the case of the northern and western isles. Mr Wilson (corporate affairs manager) said Tesco was “looking at the additional costs to get goods to the islands”.

Shetland Islands Council

I had a very pleasant hour this morning discussing windfarms and planning with a Councillor from Shetland (who shall remain anonymous).

Sheltand are clearly going full speed ahead for the maximum sized windfarm that they can.

Despite some local opposition, the absence of landlord problems and the ability to recycle the profits back into the Council coffers obviously makes the whole project much more attractive to the community as a whole.

The interconnector appears to be considered by them to be an easily surmountable issue, and their confidence in delivering onshore wind, and consequently wave, tidal and off-shore wind for the whole of Scotland is frightening.

Looks like they are going to scoop the jackpot.....unless we get the finger out.

Grid connection

Whilst many people from elsewhere appear to want the Western Isles to be a 'no go' area for renewable energy under any circumstances, Shetland are going full steam ahead.

Their latest piece of smart thinking follows on from my previous posts about the possibility of private cables, and they are exploring the possibility of owning the two inter-connector cables and keeping the profits in the Shetlands.

Brilliant, lateral thinking.

Why is no-one objecting to windfarms in Shetland, yet they seem to be falling over themselves to object here? No promise/threat of a referendum from any quarter. Yet in Shetland the SNP supports windpower. At least in 2005 it did.

Shetland's wind power plans

As I have previously commented, the difference between the position of the RSPB on the applications in Lewis and those in Shetland is noticeable.

A few choice comments from informed websites:-

"Shetland is the UK stronghold for this species (red throated divers) with other key populations on Orkney, the Outer Hebrides and the north Scottish mainland."

"The large shallow loch attracts large numbers of wildfowl during the autumn and winter, including whooper swans, wigeons and teals. In the summer, arctic terns, arctic and great skuas and kittiwakes can be seen bathing in the loch."

"Some of the birds which migrate between Iceland and Scotland travel through the isle of Lewis during spring and autumn. These include whooper swans." (Note: no numbers or relative population sizes)

"Although the proposed site in Shetland attracts large numbers of red-throated divers the RSPB believes that by keeping turbines away from certain areas any problems will be averted." (As in Lewis?)

"The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) in Scotland has published a map indicating that nearly all of Shetland is too sensitive to build wind farms." (page 132 of 140)

Given the map rules out most of Scotland where wind blows, can anyone given me any rational explanation why the Shetland project is acceptable, but Lewis is not?

Shetland ferries

We often hear Labour crowing about how much subsidy Calmac receives from the Executive.  Alasdair Morrison regularly adds revenue subsidy i.e. to support fares, to capital subsidy i.e. to build the boats, to come up with a wonderful figure.  He claimed the subsidy for the entire operation was £20m in 2001, £27.9m in Dec 04 (Col 12673), whilst the BBC reported it was £15m in 2000.  About £3m of that appears to be on the Gourock run in an attempt to drive Western ferries out of business – which is of course of great benefit to the Calmac directors, as they go to collect their fat salaries at Calmac’s Gourock HQ.

Now, we all know that Alasdair is starting to see the light (as an election looms) and modestly suggesting the extension of the Air Discount Scheme to ferries.

To put everything in perspective, it has just been announced that the Calmac run to Shetland is getting £31m per annum in subsidy, which is more than for the entire rest of the service covering the whole of the Western Isles.  Indeed the service received £71m after it hit financial trouble.  Trouble that is for everyone but the bank that leased the ships to Northlink, and made a killing q.v. train leasing.

We should be standing up and screaming for a proportionate level of support for these islands and aiming for RET on these routes.  If Shetland can get it, when they have other ferry and air services, why are we being so modest in our ambitions?

Incidentally, the same BBC report has Alasdair Morrison refuting any suggestion of the Calmac services going out to tender.  

Home, sweet home

Straight from Gothenburg, it is off to the Faeroes for a KIMO Board meeting.

Atlantic Airways is definitely the most liquid airline I have ever flown with. On responding to the request “Would you like a drink sir?” my request for a beer was met with contempt and I was asked if I wanted a real drink! Bar service was constant, free and continued until the plane was on the very last stages of the final approach.

Being outside the EU, duty free went like wildfire on the plane, with one crew member exclusively dealing with packing the duty-free into plastic bags. It seemed that everyone was buying 800 fags and a couple of bottles of something – I realised why when I saw the prices at the bar in the hotel.

1 beer, a whisky and a cup of tea cost £20!

Had very important meetings with the Faeroese Environment Minister, their Fisheries Department and with their climatologists, and we came aware much more aware o the importance of the climate on the future viability of the Faeroe Islands. The Gulf Stream is vitally important (of course) but the melting ice-caps are even more so. Apparently, although the ice-caps are shrinking in surface area, there are growing in height, so that the total mass remains broadly constant. It is the interaction of these two elements that will determine the future – and no-one seems able to predict the outcome.

The Faeroes are attractive, but the people are uncompromising smokers, with seemingly everyone having a cigarette whenever they can. Thankfully, they did respect the non-smokers amongst us and went outside when they could. The food was delicious, with fish in every variety and taste that you could imagine.

Now I am back in Glasgow airport, having been away from home for six days, and my I am so looking forward to getting back. You forget just how extremely tiring travel can be, especially when there are very important meetings at every location.

Thankfully – apart from the holiday – no more foreign travel planned until September, with the KIMO AGM in Sweden. I’m looking forward to sleeping in my own bed and sitting my own desk for a few months.

Most importantly, I’m looking forward to seeing my wife and children, who must almost forget what I look like!

What we are up against

This article about wind power neatly sums up what Shetland are trying to achieve.

The big question is, "Why are they for this, and why are we against it?"