'Dearer drinks' rates storm
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• Massive rate increases imposed by National Carriers Ltd on freight traffic to Clyde Coast resorts have sparked off a lively controversy. Food-stuffs must cost more and it has been claimed that lemonade would cost 2s a bottle—an increase of 7d a bottle—and beer would go up 2s a bottle. Resorts involved will be Rothesay, Dunoon, Brodick and Millport, the latter being most severely affected.
The new rates, applicable from August 11, have been notifed to NCL customers. The town clerk of Millport says notification of the increases came in a letter to the British Rail official at Millport pier. "It presents a very serious situation," said the town clerk, "with prices of some items rising by up to 300 per cent. We already suffer the additional burden of extra charges because we live on an island. I am certain the town council will protest when they discuss the new freight charges".
Brigadier Sir Fitzroy MacLean, MP for Bute and North Ayreshire, said: "The freight charges for the islands are high enough. I will inquire fully into this matter and take it up. It appears to be a case where a subsidy is required, otherwise Bute should come under the Highlands and Islands Development Board."
NCL told John Darker that the old rate scales were grossly uneconomic, being based on scales going back to the 1893 tariffs. NCL's nationally applied rate increases of 7; per cent in July 1968, and a further 8 per cent approximately in May 1969, had not been applied to the Clyde resorts, though they were applied to the mainland ports serving the Clyde resorts. There had been no protest from the Schweppes factory at East Kilbride, said the spokesman.
It seems probable that this relatively minor rates storm will focus attention once more to the possibility of subsidized rates for freight to remote areas of the country and especially to island communities. NCL, operating to a strict commercial remit, are clearly embarrassed by the failure of generations of Scottish area managers of British Railways to recover costs on Clyde resorts' traffic.