Scots Farmers Want Transport Inquiry
Page 68
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A CALL for the Government to 1-1 appoint a Commission to examine in detail ways in which adequate transport services can be provided in remote areas is made in a memorandum issued by the Scottish National Farmers' Union.
The plight of Scottish farmers is due, says the memorandum. to two main causes: the comparative infertility of the land, added to the difficulties of elevation and climate, and the disadvantages created by the distance from marketing centres, supplies and amenities. So far as the latter is concerned, transport costs are regarded as the heart of the matter.
Current haulage rates, the Union point out, are three times higher than pre-war. The cost of farm requisites and the cost of living are thus closely affected. It is
stated, for example, that a tractor is likely to cost up to £30 more in areas north of Inverness than at farms near the southern distribution centres.
Equally, returns to the Scottish farmer are less than the national average. The cost of transporting frozen or chilled meat from New Zealand and the Argentine is not substantially higher than the cost of moving fresh meat from the north of Scotland to London.
A solution of the passenger transport problem is made more difficult because the dwindling population is obliged to find private transport as the alternative to inadequate public services. The Union also ask for increased Government aid in maintaining rural roads.
The memorandum concludes that the Government should assist the provision of goods and passenger transport, alleviate the burden of costs on longdistance traffic, and set up a commission to survey the problem faced by the remote areas.