Greed is destroying islands’ culture

It looks very much like we don’t do our mathematics very well here in Scotland. If it was done properly, we would do our roads to a high standard before unleashing all the never-ending summer traffic on to our small and twisty west coast and island roads.

Also, we need to realise that the answer to this is not to keep expanding and putting more ferries on for our ill-prepared, and not spacious, island communities.

The answer is to give the best service to the islands and their people first and foremost, but also to restrict numbers according to the size of, and facilities available on, each island. We are currently being invaded to the extent that our grocery stores are raided and we are left with the dregs for the locals.

We simply can’t live our usual lives between May and September. We can’t get out of passing places, which is very detrimental to builders and crofters. Our summer schedule requires extra hours to get things done.

CalMac, probably due to pressure from its masters at Holyrood, is not doing what it was set up to do. Its remit was first and foremost to give a dedicated social, lifeline service for the people of the Hebridean Isles.

That simply does not happen these days, as islanders are at the back of the queue from May to September. More and more ferries is not the answer. Indeed, that is physically and morally wrong.

If we keep going as we are, it is going to wipe out our indigenous people and culture.

I guess money is the priority for folk involved in tourism.

They will eventually destroy our islands and their culture, mostly due to greed and tourism. Anoghas Eoghainn Mhoir, Gerraidh na Monadh, Uibhist a Deas.