Ferry money refused

Norshukon, the ferry project of John White who hopes eventually to run a passenger service from Shetland to Norway, has been unsuccessful in its bid for EU Marco Polo funding, it was announced this week.

However operator Mr White said that while he was disappointed, he was “not despondent” and is looking at other, non public, funding options for the project.

This is the second time the company has bid for the funding. On the last occasion, in September 2008, the bid failed due to competition from a separate company, Superfast, which was at that time working on the Rosyth-Zeebrugge leg of the route.

It is believed that Norshukon was one of 70 bids received by the European Commission. If it had been successful, the bid would have allowed phase one of the project to link mid Norway with Zeebrugge.

EU evaluators commented that while the submission had been “well executed” and had “satisfied the criteria for modal shift, environ–mental benefits, social benefits and did not give rise to any unacceptable distortions to competition” it “did not provide sufficient evidence to give them confidence of the traffic volumes committed”.

Mr White said: “Needless to say I am disappointed that after two years of development of my proposal for the new ferry service, our bid for EU funding was not successful.”

Mr White said that he was looking at going ahead on a purely commercial basis, which would also allow him to escape the restraints of Marco Polo funding conditions.

He continued: “I am however continuing to investigate the feasibility of starting the route without public sector support as I remain convinced that the project will prove to be viable.”

NO COMMENTS

Add Your Comment

Add Your Comment

Please note, it is the policy of The Shetland Times to publish comments and letters from named individuals only. Both forename and surname are required.

Comments are moderated. Contributors must observe normal standards of decency and tolerance for the opinions of others.

The views expressed are those of contributors and not of The Shetland Times.

The Shetland Times reserves the right to decline or remove any contribution without notice or stating reason.

Comments are limited to 200 words but please email longer articles or letters to editorial@shetlandtimes.co.uk for consideration and include a daytime telephone number and your address. If emailing information in confidence please put "Not for publication" in both the subject line and at the top of the main message.

200 words left

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

logo

Get Latest News in Your Inbox

Join the The Shetland Times mailing list to get one daily email update at midday on what's happening in Shetland.