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Home , Fair Isle, Fetlar, Grutness, Linga (near Vementry), Papa Stour, Shetland

#MyFerry, Our Ferry, Your Ferry

The importance of the inter-island ferry service to life in cannot be overestimated. The ferry service is the social and economic backbone of our islands. The ferries take commuters to work and essentials to community shops. The ferries take patients to hospital and children to school. They are a lifeline in the truest sense of the word. What’s more, the ferry service is the key to unlocking economic success not just for Shetland, but for all of . The ferries take the fish from Scotland’s biggest export - farmed salmon - to their destination. The ferries will take the parts and the people to to build the UK’s first vertical satellite launch site. They take tourists to to see its world-renowned 27 species of bird. And they’ll take commuters to the Shetland Energy Hub as we transition to . #MyFerry is about lifting the lid on a lifeline. And #MyFerry is about showcasing the benefits of investment. Shetland’s inter-island ferries need more funding, so that we can give our own people a lifeline and invest for the benefit of all Scotland. We ask for certainty. We ask for our lifeline. And we ask for the chance to give more back than we receive.

2 ferries and Funding shortfall infrastructure need to of over £5.5m be replaced urgently at every year estimated cost of £37m

Average 12 12 ferries Around age of completing 750,000 Serving 27 ferries is around 70,000 passengers 9 27 years crossings every year remote 70,000 every year old islands Routemap

Unst

Gutcher Belmont B IG A S G EIR NOLDA Yell A & G

Ulsta Toft

Vidlin West D I A R Mainland G N E G E C A G W N LIE DA ADVA Walls N &

F I A L L G A IN , H L LEIRNA ENDRA &

G O V I O D D ER SHEPH Fair Isle FIVLA #MyFerry - a local lifeline Jennifer Nisbet, Headteacher, lives in Yell

I was born and bred in Yell. After I graduated, I briefly commuted to a mainland school, but had to stop as it just wasn’t practical at that time. I’ve been commuting every day to the mainland since I took up this post four years ago - the timetable is better now and there’s bigger ferries. Promoted posts are few and far between in schools in Yell, and the ferries have allowed me to advance my career by looking to the mainland. There are three head teachers who come out of Yell every day, as well as several other school staff, and more who travel the other way. I have six grandchildren living on the mainland, so on top of the twenty return trips I do a month for work, I use the ferries to go to see them, to attend appointments or head into town for shopping. I’m lucky in that my school is just five minutes from the ferry - but it’s expensive if you add in fuel costs, especially if you’re going further. It costs me around £180 a month to commute. If you’re on a lower income, that would make living on Yell and working on the mainland quite tricky, so anything that brings that cost down would be very welcome, and help keep the isle viable.

#MyFerry - “There are three head teachers who come out of Yell every day.” #MyFerry - a local lifeline Karis Leask, S6 at Anderson High School, lives in Whalsay

I travel out from Whalsay every week to stay in the hostel. Eleven of us leave on the seven o’clock ferry on Sundays, get to the hostel around eight, and come back out again on Friday afternoon. There’s around 40 pupils from the isles who do the same. The timing is good as it gives us most of Sunday at home, but it’s a bit draining coming back and fore, especially in winter. When you were peerie, it was a bit of a novelty, but that does wear off and I do remember some bad trips. You just have to get used to it, like it or not. I’m involved in a lot of sports, and used to come out three or four times a week for football, netball, hockey and swimming. A lot of folk hate the ferries as it can be rough, and we do see a lot of visiting sports teams who just won’t come up on a bad day - it’s not really fair, as we always did it to play on the mainland! I’m hoping to be a PE teacher and I’d like to live in Whalsay after Uni. Both my parents commute to Lerwick for their work, and I imagine I’d do the same, as if I have a family I’d want to live here. The ferries are important for that, but more ferries at the weekend and more space for vehicles would make a big difference.

#MyFerry - “Eleven of us leave on the seven o’clock ferry on Sundays.” #MyFerry - a local lifeline Clare Stiles, Child and Family Health manager, lives in Yell

Yell has been our home for 26 years. I spent the first 14 as the district nurse here, and before my husband retired, he worked on the mainland and in Unst. The ferries allowed us to do that, and nowadays they give me the chance to commute to Lerwick. Having the ferry service has meant we could develop our careers and stay in Yell, which we love. I catch the ferry just after 7am, and while I can’t always be sure when I’ll finish, there’s enough flexibility in the timetable at the end of the day to get me home. That helps keep the island populated - if you have a young family, and you can’t commute to work you’re likely to move away, and no island community can survive if that happens too much. When I was a district nurse, the ferries were absolutely vital in getting patients into the hospital. Nowadays, I manage a team which includes health visitors and children’s nurses who all have to make critical home visits right across the isles, and without the ferries, that just wouldn’t be possible. It’s absolutely a lifeline service.

#MyFerry - “My team makes critical home visits right across the isles, and without the ferries, that just wouldn’t be possible.” #MyFerry - a local lifeline Colin Jamieson, Vet, lives on the Mainland

I’m originally from Unst, but have worked as a vet on the mainland for nearly 20 years now. I travel up every week, with surgeries at local halls and other appointments on each of the isles, so I’m travelling across two sounds on those days. I cover everything from livestock to family pets, and the coastguard will arrange for special trips across if there are emergencies. The company I work for has been doing it for a long time, and other vets do it too - it’s an important service for crofters, and, especially for folk in Unst who’d otherwise have problems getting livestock down, it makes a big difference and is a real benefit for animal welfare. I’ve seen the ferries change over the decades, from 1973 when the ro-ro service came in, and it’s really opened up things for the isles. Folk are really reliant on them for everything - it’s a lifeline, what more can you say?

#MyFerry - “It’s a lifeline, what more can you say?” #MyFerry - a local lifeline Fiona Mitchell, Fair Isle Shop and Post Office, lives in Fair isle

I lived in Fair Isle when I was a child, left Shetland to train as a nurse, and moved back to the isle in 1993 with my husband and we’ve run the shop since then. We get all our supplies in on the ferry, we can’t just go and load up at the wholesalers. Our orders come in once a week in the winter, and twice in the summer - that’s really important, as at certain times of the year our population can effectively double, and we’re supplying local accommodation providers. Of course, what with the loss of the Bird Observatory and a lack of non-essential visitors, this year is very different. The weather can seriously affect the service; the longest I remember us going without a ferry was around six weeks. We had to have people and provisions helicoptered in and out. Folk here are resilient, though - they’ve got their own lamb off the hill, their own freezers, and yards. We’re used to being self-reliant. The greatest value of the ferry to the community is that it’s based here - it’s income for the crew, which boosts the local economy, and it gives us greater flexibility and control. An upgraded vessel is much-needed and would make an enormous difference. If we get more capacity, and keep our crew in Fair Isle, it gives us income and helps preserve, and hopefully increase our population - and that’s what gives communities confidence.

#MyFerry - “We can’t just go and load up at the wholesalers.” #MyFerry - a national investment Frank Strang, , lives in Unst

We’re developing the Shetland Space Centre in Unst, which looks like being the first satellite launch site in the UK. We’re already attracting clients and partners from all over the world. The quality of Shetland’s infrastructure is key to the whole project, and our interisland ferries will have to be able to move people and equipment from places as far away as Los Angeles, Munich and central Europe up to Unst. We’re leading the way in this new industry, and keeping the UK at the forefront of this new sector, so it’s absolutely vital that we are able to be competitive. We have to be able to attract our clients - launch providers, payload customers, technicians and operators as well as visitors and tourists - and move them seamlessly around the islands. Our clients will have to be able to depend on our travel and transport infrastructure, and the ferries are integral to that. Shetland has to maintain a modern, frequent and reliable ferry service; without that, we will struggle to convince our partners that Shetland is ready for lift off.

#MyFerry - “Without a reliable ferry service we will struggle to convince our partners that Shetland is ready for lift off.” #MyFerry - a national investment David Brown, Shetland manager for Cooke , lives on the Mainland

Cooke has nineteen salmon farms in Shetland, in Yell, Unst and Fetlar, as well as on the west mainland, and employs around 130 people across the isles. The ferries are crucial to the success of our company, as all the fish we farm will at least cross . We move around thousands of tonnes of salmon a year inwards to our processing facility in Yell, and then down to Lerwick to be shipped to the mainland. Timing is critical when you’re dealing with fresh fish, so we know the ferry timetables very well. We have a number of staff who use the ferries to get to their work, as well as all our service companies - for example, engineers, divers, haulage companies - really anything you need to make a fish farm work has to come across on the SIC’s ferries. We couldn’t do what we do without a reliable service, and any reduction in that would have a serious effect on us and potentially on our workforce. I live on the mainland, and in normal times I could be using the ferries for work every day. Also, my wife is from Yell, so it’s fair to say I’m a regular service user!

#MyFerry - “The ferries are crucial to the success of our company.” #MyFerry - a national investment James John Shearer, manager of Blydoit Fish Ltd., lives in Whalsay

I live in Whalsay, and have travelled to Blydoit in every day since the business was set up in 2003. As well as the processing facility, we have two shops, and supply fish to our hospital, care homes, schools, and local shops from Unst to Fair Isle. Our 19 employees process around six tonnes of fish a week. We deliver some of our product ourselves and use local freight companies for the rest. The ferries are a vital lifeline which we totally depend upon. They are a significant expense for our business, which does affect the cost of our product. The ferries are undoubtedly an expensive service to run, what with staff, fuel and maintenance. It is worrying that one of the ferries on the route is almost forty years old. It’s imperative that the service is properly supported in order to maintain Whalsay’s population - young folk are already moving off the isle as it’s cheaper and more convenient. Our service has already been cut to one ferry on Saturday and Sunday which does restrict leisure activities at the weekend. I’ve been using the ferries most of my life. From time to time, bad weather can close the service down, and it can be a rough trip at times, but a dependable link is vitally important for the future of Whalsay and for all our islands.

#MyFerry - “The ferries are a vital lifeline which we totally depend upon.” #MyFerry - a national investment Jane Puckey, crofts in Papa Stour, lives on the Mainland

Getting vehicle access in 2006 made a huge difference to Papa – making it easier to move provisions, supplies and livestock. It also made a big difference to companies like Scottish Water and British Telecom, the Council’s road workers, sileage contractors and so on. It was particularly useful when our electric cable broke in 2008 and the Hydro had to ship in a big generator for the whole isle and bring in a tanker to refuel it. The new breakwater built at the same time as the pier provides shelter for the ferry, as well as for yachts and pleasure craft which come from all around the world. Many visitors come to Papa Stour in the summer, as well as visiting family and friends all year round and there can be a log-jam on the ferry, which can only carry 12 passengers. It is a limited timetable. As it stands, you can’t commute for work in the way you can from other islands, and if you have to get out for anything, you do need to plan well ahead. Papa is very beautiful, and a lovely place to live. We’ve a small community which works together to do things like restore the kirk as a heritage/community centre. There’s a lot of potential for more people to live here, and a better-funded service would make a huge difference.

#MyFerry - “There’s a lot of potential for more people to live here, and a better-funded service would make a huge difference.” #MyFerry - a national investment Susannah Parnaby, Guesthouse Administrator for Fair Isle Bird Observatory, lives in Fair Isle

This is a crucial service for us. Fair Isle is a small, remote island and is very important. We’re dependent on the number of people we can attract, and we know that demand already outstrips the capacity we have to get them here. It isn’t an easy crossing, and not always an enjoyable trip, but the boat can often go when the plane can’t, and having the crew and vessel based here means we can take advantage of weather windows really quickly. A faster, more comfortable boat with more capacity would make a big difference. We can be really busy with birders at certain times of the year, but folk visit for lots of reasons - for the knitting, music and just the island’s culture. There’s something really special about arriving on Fair Isle by sea - it really gives you a sense of your place in the world. We lost the Observatory to a fire, and plans are underway to rebuild next year. The virus has hit all the small accommodation operators here badly, so for the whole island it’s important we can ‘build back’, and the ferry is key to that. The ferry underpins the whole life of the island – everything from bringing in Christmas presents to helping you get off-island in an emergency when the plane can’t fly. It sounds dramatic, but without a good service we’d find it almost impossible to live here. It has a massive impact.

#MyFerry - “It sounds dramatic, but without a good service we’d find it almost impossible to live here.” Funding Requirements

Revenue 2021/22 Capital Income £17.4m* Expenditure £22.9m*

* N E DEFICIT £5.5m DA N D EW C GALIE AGGRI FILLA ADVAN LEIRNA

*rounded to the nearest hundred thousand 16 years old 16 years old 17 years old 18 years old 25 years old 28 years old

G O IV O D RD S BIGGA GEIRA SHEPHE FIVLA NOLDA HENDRA 29 years old 32 years old 34 years old 36 years old 37 years old 38 years old

Urgent Replacements Needed

Ferry: Ferry: £13m £4m

G Harbour: O V Harbours: I O D D ER HENDRA £1m SHEPH £19m