Skye 'pilot' scheme angers lorrymen
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• An Inverness county council system for tendering for haulage and maintenance on road works, adopted in May, has angered a group of contractors on the Isle of Skye who claim they have been excluded from the scheme.
And the group of nine have told the county roads surveyor, Mr G. MacFarlane, in a letter of protest: "The decision by your roads committee will certainly increase unemployment on Skye, with the consequent drift south of islanders in search of employment elsewhere".
Under the system the lowest bidders in the county have got the bulk of the available work, and in Skye three such contractors have been selected while the group of nine, all from the northern parts of the island, are left out.
The protest letter points out that haulage rates quoted by the group were similar to those accepted for the past two years.
The county surveyor's reply said that: "The tendering system for the hire of lorries in the county was introduced this year by the roads committee to enable the function to be carried out at the most economical prices possible".
A subsequent letter from the nine contractors drew the county surveyor's attention to the submission of tenders and stated: "We followed our usual custom of collating local information as to whether or not our rates agreement was reached by all Skye contractors — including those you have now on hire — so that no alteration would be made to our rates which have remained constant over this past two years".
The letter added that all contractors were prepared to offer their services at a rate similar to that of contractors at present employed. Those who represented the whole of the north and west sides of the island now found themselves "due entirely to a form of betrayal by other contractors in going against their promise and under-cutting rates, without work of any description whatsoever, a situation which is not conducive to the welfare of the Skye community as a whole".
Mr MacFarlane said the scheme was a "pilot" for lorry hire only on a competitive basis. The only complaint on the scheme had come from Skye.
"The roads committee were 100 per cent behind the idea," he added, pointing out that the unsuccessful contractors, with whom he had "a lot of sympathy", would have the opportunity of again tendering next year.