The Scottish Government will not intervene to prevent Caledonian MacBrayne introducing a Sunday sailing to traditionally Sabbatarian Lewis, it was revealed yesterday.
The company has deferred a decision, but Transport Minister Stewart Stevenson has already written to campaigners who oppose the plan for the Stornoway to Ullapool service.
In his letter, he makes clear that he will leave the final decision to CalMac despite the strength of religious feeling on the issue.
The Lord's Day Observance Society has already submitted a petition bearing almost 4000 signatures out of a population of just in excess of 20,000 in Lewis and Harris. However, there is also evidence of strong support for the new service.
Though Mr Stevenson told campaigners that the publicly owned CalMac should have regard to community views and religious sensitivities, he added: "It would in my view be impractical for the company to need the absolute support from any island community before it could proceed with any service change.
"There are clearly very different, and I suspect irreconcilable, views about Sunday sailings, and I respect the right of all those concerned to hold such views. However, I am content for CalMac to take a final decision on the matter using its own commercial judgment.
"In my view, the company's prime function must always be the provision of essential lifeline ferry services to isolated communities and to be responsive to demand for service improvements whenever it is practicable for them to be provided.
"I do not believe that the company should be constrained unreasonably by cultural, social or other considerations in its efforts to improve ferry services. Its delivery of services should clearly be sensitive to such issues, but that is very different from the company being restricted in exercising its prime function because part of a community objects to something which another part of the same community clearly feels it needs."
The new contract between the Scottish Government and CalMac following the tendering of the company's routes stipulates that written permission is needed from ministers before any major changes are made to timetables.
But it also says that ministers would be deemed to have consented to major changes, unless they had refused consent within 20 days of receiving the proposal.
Mr Stevenson says that means the contract does not demand that ministers take the final decision on issues such as the introduction of Sunday sailings on the Ullapool-Stornoway route.
This is a bitter blow to Sabbatarian campaigners.
One, who had seen a copy of Mr Stevenson's letter but who wished to remain anonymous, said: "We were delighted that the new contract demanded ministerial consent before changes were made because ministers would no longer be able to hold themselves aloof and say it was an operational matter for CalMac. But now we have the minister doing exactly that" .
Meanwhile, the Labour Party in the Western Isles has selected Donald John Macsween, a Lewis councillor and supporter of Sunday sailings, as the party's candidate at the next General Election.
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