Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander yesterday urged Highland communities who feel they have been unfairly left out of the UK government’s extended fuel subsidy scheme to get in touch.
The UK Government announced that Acharacle, Achnasheen, Gairloch, Strathpeffer, Carrbridge, Dalwhinnie and Appin are all in line to benefit from the 5p-a-litre fuel reduction if approved by the European Commission.
But the choice of communities has provoked anger in the far north as the whole of remote Caithness and Sutherland has been left out. And there was further criticism as the petrol station in Achnasheen village has been closed for five years.
Yesterday, Danny Alexander defended the selection process, which took the form of a “call for information” in July, with officials contacting 1,500 retailers in 35 areas, including Aber-deenshire, Moray, the Highlands and Argyll and Bute. He said: “The list has been drawn up with a combination of information released in that process and information from the Treasury. It has to be approved at the European level and the criteria are very strict. Prices over a period of years have to be higher than the cheapest available on the islands.
“They also to have to meet criteria over sparsity of population and distance from an oil refinery.”
He said north MP John Thurso had brought concerns in Durness to his attention. He added: “If there are places that meet the criteria but, for whatever reason, weren’t able to answer the ‘call for information’, I would look at that.”John Mackenzie, of the Richard Mackay and Sons petrol station in Durness, said the filling station had applied to the scheme. He said: “The whole of Caithness and Sutherland haven’t been included in this list and I think they should have been. We applied for it so we can’t understand why some other places have got it while we haven’t.”
North MP John Thurso said he “couldn’t believe” that Durness had not been included on the list for the extended fuel rebate.
The MP said: “The Treasury said one month out of the three the price was lower which I find really odd.”