Locals set to fizz about 400-mile trip to get gas

Published in the Scottish newspaper The Press and Journal.

Residents on a Hebridean island face a 400-mile round trip to get bottled gas because the daily ferry is unable to carry cylinders.

For years, residents living on Barra have relied on sup- plies brought by daily ferry from the mainland.

The current vessel, MV Clansman, is set to move to another route and another ferry, MV Isle of Lewis, will take over at the end of the month. But it has emerged that the new ship has no open deck for cargo - and will not be able to carry gas bottles.

Ferry operator Caledonian MacBrayne claims that gas supplies are “se- cure” because residents can still make a 400-mile round trip to Mallaig to restock. The ferry operator has also promised to schedule a weekly boat to Oban, where householders will be able to pick up two bottles at a time. Due to a tight schedule, those who make the trip would have to stay the night.

Peter MacNeil, from Barra Isles Stores, supplies customers and businesses with domestic gas, which can be used for heating and cooking. He also provides gas to the island’s school, emergency services, lifeboats and hotels.

He said: “We now have a daily sailing on a vessel that cannot carry bottled gas. This presents the business with a huge problem and the people of Barra too.

“New ship has no open deck and will not be able to carry gas bottles”

How do we get gas to the school?

Rhoda Grant, Labour MSP for the Highlands and Islands, condemned the suggestion that residents could get their gas supplies from Oban.

She said: “The length of the sailings means it is im- possible for people to get from Barra to Oban and back in the same day.

“The boat leaves Oban at 7.15am, gets into Barra at 2.15pm and then gets back to Oban at 9.30pm. While I welcome CalMac looking to solve the community’s concerns, what they have proposed will still not re- solve the issues.”

Helen MacDonnald, a hotelier in Barra, said that the community was currently blissfully unaware of the situation. “Right now the people of Barra are on the whole unaware of the prob- lem we are facing and I feel I have no option but to ask for outside help,” she said.

A CalMac spokesman said: “Bottled gas supplies to Barra when the new summer timetable is introduced at the end of the month are secure. It is readily available on a daily basis from wholesale sup- pliers on South Uist and from Mallaig. Gas can also be brought to the is- land directly from Oban on an extra Wednesday sailing that has been laid on.”