The maintenance of Orkney council’s piers and harbours has continued to fall behind schedule, councillors have been told this week.
While this trend is nothing new, it led councillors to ask what’s going on and if anything is being done to solve the issue.
They were told the issue was down to a lack of staff, capacity within the local supply chain, and a lack of investment in years gone by.
Councillors on the Harbours Authority sub-committee, which met yesterday, were presented with a report on the current costs of the ongoing £2.5million maintenance programme for the council’s piers across the islands.
The report shows 12 projects being carried forward from last financial year. Projects on this list such as Scapa Pier power upgrade and the supply of marine fenders note long delays or long delivery times hindering their completion.
Another 17 projects are listed as “confirmed” or “proposed” for the 2022/2023 financial year.
This led councillor Ivan Taylor to ask how the council’s programme seemed to be “slipping again and again and again.”
Can anything be done to stop Orkney council from falling behind with piers and harbours maintenance?
He asked: “So, all this stuff we’ve got done this year and is slipping to next year means that the stuff we have planned for next year isn’t going to happen either?”
The council’s head of marine services, Jim Buck, said that Mr Taylor was correct.
He also said the council have decided to stop putting anything new on the list, to allow them to get on top of the maintenance at Orkney’s piers and harbours.
The only work that would be added will be safety-related, he said.
However, north isles councillor Melissa Thomson said she found it difficult to understand how the council keep slipping behind.
She said: “Is there any way we can get ahead of this? We just seem to keep going on about this.
“Everyone’s waiting for design details and all that.
“I understand that we’re not going to add anything to the list until we get caught up, but can we do something?
“Can we get extra help to get the designs done?
“If this is stalling, it’s not getting us any further ahead. It’s clearly affecting a lot of Orkney’s piers in the north isles. If they’re needing to be fixed, they’re needing to be fixed.”
Council won’t add any more projects to the list until they catch up
Mr Buck explained that part of the problem was a lack of personnel within the engineering department of the marine civil surveyor, with it being “down to one individual.”
Another issue, he said, is capacity within the local supply chain.
He also said it was also down to lack of investment in past decades, and trying to catch up.
He gave an example of the pier in Papa Westray, where it may have been thought work was completed.
But after another look by the engineers, it was found that issues remained.
However, he admitted he isn’t sure how to get around the issue of slippage in Orkney’s pier maintenance.
He said the issue was really down to civil engineering.
Mrs Thomson said: “We should note that there’s an ongoing issue that’s going to be causing problems.
“We’d be better off getting it sorted now than keep patching it in the future.”
Conversation