Human Rights
Posted: Saturday, 21 June 2008 |
Surely the people living on Jura have the same basic Human rights as people living on the Main Land. This being the right to move freely around the country, without restriction.
Whilst I fully expect to have the usual silly comments posted, this is, in my view, a very serious matter.
It seems that if you live on Jura, you only have the right to leave the Island when it fits in with ASP Ship Management's schedule (and I do not mean the published time table), if you wish to visit Jura, the same applies AND apparantly, if you are not resident on Jura, you cannot book a 21.30 ferry.
We used to have an excellent ferry service but all that is a thing of the past.
Why should that be? If you can be bothered to read the Transport Strategy published by Argyll and Bute Council, it makes statements about the way forward and how they are planning to make transportation in the years to come, more accessable and user friendly, HA!
There is a published time table, with set times for the ferry. It seems that this no longer applies, now, when the ferry is full of vehicles, it sets off. So if you go to the 10.30 ferry and arrive at 10.25 (on Islay) but the ferry is full of vehicles, it will leave before the scheduled time. You then have to wait until the next run(11.15) BUT if the ferry is full of vehicles by 11.05, it will depart, as you can imagine, the knock on effect is total chaos. If the new system (as far as I can work out, it has been unofficially introduced), is what the future is, then the whole economy of the Island will implode. An ASP staff member told me, that due to increased fuel costs, not only will double runs (used to clear the traffic due to the ferry being too small) no longer be available but they were also considering reducing the scheduled 14 runs a day, to cut costs. He told me this whilst we were stood at the side of the ferry, which was moored but had the engine revved up for 30 mins (what's that all about?). The ferry then crossed at half speed, to save fuel.
The powers that be, do not accept, that, because they have previously been doing an average of 28 runs a day, that there is a need for more runs OR that the present ferry is too small! DUH!
What I would like to know, who told the crew to stop doing double runs and for why? How do they think the Island can manage to survive if they are stopping access both for Islanders and tourists alike and is the millions of pounds paid into Government coffers from Jura important or not because the distillery will also be affected.
Are the present problems the result of some jumped up vindictive individual making decisions beyond their power's OR a policy by Argyll and Bute to de populate the Island OR a profit based decision by ASP.
We need some answers NOW. Before it is too late and the Island dies because believe me, it will, if the present actions of whoever, continue.
To outsiders this blog may seem muddled and not make much sense but I hope it does, to those who use the Jura ferry on a daily basis.
Whilst I fully expect to have the usual silly comments posted, this is, in my view, a very serious matter.
It seems that if you live on Jura, you only have the right to leave the Island when it fits in with ASP Ship Management's schedule (and I do not mean the published time table), if you wish to visit Jura, the same applies AND apparantly, if you are not resident on Jura, you cannot book a 21.30 ferry.
We used to have an excellent ferry service but all that is a thing of the past.
Why should that be? If you can be bothered to read the Transport Strategy published by Argyll and Bute Council, it makes statements about the way forward and how they are planning to make transportation in the years to come, more accessable and user friendly, HA!
There is a published time table, with set times for the ferry. It seems that this no longer applies, now, when the ferry is full of vehicles, it sets off. So if you go to the 10.30 ferry and arrive at 10.25 (on Islay) but the ferry is full of vehicles, it will leave before the scheduled time. You then have to wait until the next run(11.15) BUT if the ferry is full of vehicles by 11.05, it will depart, as you can imagine, the knock on effect is total chaos. If the new system (as far as I can work out, it has been unofficially introduced), is what the future is, then the whole economy of the Island will implode. An ASP staff member told me, that due to increased fuel costs, not only will double runs (used to clear the traffic due to the ferry being too small) no longer be available but they were also considering reducing the scheduled 14 runs a day, to cut costs. He told me this whilst we were stood at the side of the ferry, which was moored but had the engine revved up for 30 mins (what's that all about?). The ferry then crossed at half speed, to save fuel.
The powers that be, do not accept, that, because they have previously been doing an average of 28 runs a day, that there is a need for more runs OR that the present ferry is too small! DUH!
What I would like to know, who told the crew to stop doing double runs and for why? How do they think the Island can manage to survive if they are stopping access both for Islanders and tourists alike and is the millions of pounds paid into Government coffers from Jura important or not because the distillery will also be affected.
Are the present problems the result of some jumped up vindictive individual making decisions beyond their power's OR a policy by Argyll and Bute to de populate the Island OR a profit based decision by ASP.
We need some answers NOW. Before it is too late and the Island dies because believe me, it will, if the present actions of whoever, continue.
To outsiders this blog may seem muddled and not make much sense but I hope it does, to those who use the Jura ferry on a daily basis.
Posted on jurastores at 17:21
Living on the Isle of Jura
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