Another nail in Unst’s coffin (Belle Spence)

The council has struck yet another blow to Unst. The decision has been made to close the Uyeasound school in December. (It’s good that Burravoe school got a reprieve.) This will certainly be devastating for Uyeasound especially as all they have left in their township is their hall. People are already planning to move from the area and maybe the island.

What more damage can the council do to Unst? Well, it has taken almost everything now except Baltasound Junior High School, the leisure centre and Nordalea. It has already been suggested that the secondary bairns should go to Mid Yell but hopefully that is out of the question now. The leisure centre is a great asset to our community and we hope there are no plans to move the Unst residents of Nordalea to Mid Yell, especially as it took us a long time to get our own resource centre.

What will be on the agenda next, I wonder? The ferries, our only lifeline to the Shetland mainland, perhaps. Unst already has fewer crossings than our counterparts in Yell. Yell has more early crossings and also very late crossings where they can book up until 1am in the morning. Unst residents always have to leave meetings and events on the mainland early in order to catch the last ferry home.

If the council try and reduce the number of early or late crossings into Unst it would mean that Unst workers would not be able to continue doing shift work at Sullom Voe. So, please please let common sense prevail.

The council is already planning to have meetings in various venues in Shetland to discuss how to save a further £26 million, but, alas, no meeting is planned in Unst. Say no more.

Don’t let Unst be the forgotten island.

Belle Spence
Dawnvale,
Unst.