THE SNP face questions over their failure to stand a candidate in an upcoming by-election – with the Scottish Greens hailing their man as the only pro-Yes option for voters.
Neil Wilkinson will contest this week’s by-election in Arran, North Ayrshire, for the Greens and told The National the SNP had left the contest “wide open” for his party to oust the Tories.
The by-election was triggered by the resignation of Tory councillor Timothy Billings who left the island, citing difficulties with “the ferry situation”.
Wilkinson said: “I cannot begin to explain why the SNP didn’t stand but there you go, suddenly that makes it wide open.
"I think we are the party that are best-placed to overturn the Tories. What a strange opportunity to be given.”
He also hit out at the main ferry service, which links Brodick to Ardrossan on the mainland.
He said: “We’ve been here 15 years and it’s never been as bad as this and it’s not just that the new boats haven’t come and the old boats are breaking down, it’s also that the port in Ardrossan isn’t being maintained and isn’t being refurbished.
"It was privatised a few decades ago and it isn’t fit for purpose and it’s very, very frustrating for everybody who lives on this island.”
Wilkinson, who is originally from Hull in East Yorkshire and has lived in the island since 2011, said that if elected he would pressure CalMac for freebies for islanders as compensation for the “the 10 years of farce that we’ve had”.
He added: “I appreciate that's not in the council’s direct control so what we’re advocating is, firstly quotas for residents on each sailing and secondly compensation for residents for the 10 years of farce that we’ve had, which we think should be two years of free ferry travel.
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“If you think about it, it’s CalMac’s busiest line, it’s a small percentage of the people on that Ardrossan to Brodick ferry are locals, they could readily afford to do it and I would want to campaign for them to do just that and get the council’s support and certainly get the support of people on the island.
“Finally, as far as the ferries go, we want to take Peel Ports into public ownership, which doesn’t mean traditional 1945-style nationalisation but public ownership by the community of Ardrossan and Arran.”
The Greens candidate has served as the island’s housing officer for the last 15 years, doing some of the role remotely from Edinburgh before moving in 2011. He is due to retire in November.
He said the island’s housing situation, like rural communities across Scotland, was becoming “increasingly difficult”, adding: “Prices are like Edinburgh but wages obviously aren’t.”
Wilkinson said: “All the landlords have piled into holiday lets, over a quarter of the properties on the island are now second homes or property lets and the council needs to redress that balance with licencing and increased council tax and even more importantly, the council needs to build more social housing which is very much in their power, both for themselves and for housing associations.”
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The Greens candidate made his case for Yessers to back his campaign, saying: “The SNP isn’t standing, clearly we are the independence party and I would hope that most of the first-preference SNP votes would therefore go Green and we have every chance of beating the Conservatives which would be an especially sweet thing to do.”
A Transport Scotland spokesperson said the organisation recognised the “impact that delays and disruption have regrettably had on our island communities – including Arran” and said it was “committed to investing in our ferry services”.
The government body said it had recently run a consultation with islanders and added: “We share the frustration of local communities around the lack of progress on port improvements at Ardrossan, but it is essential that all partners involved are agreed on a way forward for the project.
“The business case review work is being progressed as quickly as possible. The required financial and legal agreements are critical to the overall delivery of the project in order for the solution to be affordable and ensure value for money.”
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A spokesperson for Ardrossan Harbour said: “We’re disappointed by these misplaced and unhelpful comments. Our position on the redevelopment of Ardrossan is well documented, and we stand firmly behind that commitment to invest millions into the port.”
The SNP were approached for comment.
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