It was great news to find out that from April next year ferry fares will be reduced, however it has just been announced that the freight fares are going up by 2.9% and that will affect everyone living in Shetland.
That means that fuel and food along with everything else that is transported to Shetland will cost more, no doubt these things will go up more than 3%.We have already seen a number of items in Tesco increasing , bread by 5p and other items up by 25p.
An increased demand from people wanting to come to Shetland as a result of the decreased fares may result in the ferry timetables being altered. Some suggest that there will only be a short stay in the harbours of Lerwick and Aberdeen for the ferries so they can fit in extra journeys. This may mean extra costs of hotels at both ends of a journey depending on the ferry departures which will rule out any benefit from the reduced fares.
Fishermen will be hit like everyone else and have to use the ferries to send fish south, this will damage our economy no end. On another fishing matter it will be interesting to see how the government will police the extended 200 mile limit, unless they barter it away.
The Hirta is our fishery protection vessel and is in big demand even now, the Navy will have to be drafted in to help out to cover such a massive area. A number of Faroes boats have been caught and as a result the boats have been confiscated
Shetland also has one of the highest fuel poverty levels in the UK with the standing charge about double that of England. We have a massive gas plant at Sullom but we have been informed that instead of a new gas fired Power station we will have to transfer electricity from northern Scotland to fuel a the new Power station. Talk about wasting money, I think figures suggest that a gas fired one would be about a 1/4 of the cost and would be a more reliable source than electric which could be cut off anytime.
During this week we had four power cuts, three only a minute or so but the last one over 1/2 hour, this was due to a lightening strike on a pole. As ever the Hydro lads got out quick to solve the problem.
Talking about electricity, the Viking Energy development has reared its head again as the government have said they can apply for a contract in Spring 2018. They still have to raise a £1billion before the interconnector will be considered, only the Scottish consumers will have to fork out £557 million - `Cannot see that happening'.
This week we saw a film on `Havera' a small island south of Burra that was last lived on up to the 1920's. They had a tough life living there with very little fresh water, no peat and a tiny harbour. Four - Five families lived close together, fishing for a living. A teacher came onto the island to teach around 20 children, each child was allocated a week of tuition and the teacher lived with the family during this week.
We also attended the Sandwick RVS meeting when Jimmy Winchester spoke about the 1947 Big Snow. He told of people walking on top of the enormous mounds of snow and being able to touch the tops of telegraph poles, this lasted for 7 weeks.
Boats took supplies to different parts of the islands as the roads were unusable, for the most part people had already stocked up with peats and supplies , unlike now when most people rely on electric heating and a weekly shop to Tesco essential.
Many thousands of sheep died in the deep snow and for a lot of crofters it took along time to recover. Now crofters are finding it tough again, the price of Shetland lamb is very, very low, £5 last year and only £2 per lamb this year, this is all down to Britain leaving Europe.
There are lots to do as the night draw in, lots of music and other interests and of course a chance to see the Aurora which has been very active recently. Join us on facebook at Shetland Aurora Hunter
