THE UK Government has performed an embarrassing U-turn on the exclusion of Sutherland villages from its cut-price fuel scheme.
The Treasury has reversed a shock decision to completely omit one of the most remote regions in the UK from a list of rural areas in line for a 5p-a-litre petrol and diesel discount.
Local MP John Thurso said last night that the department had made an “honest mistake” when it drew up the plans because it “did not understand” the large area covered by a postcode in the area.
The SNP claimed last night that the flagship government policy was in “disarray”.
Ministers said last week that, after “careful assessment of all the evidence”, they had lodged a dossier in Brussels to try to extend the discount from the islands to 10 remote mainland areas, including seven in the Highlands.
However, officials have now admitted privately that the application will have to be changed to add another two areas – Durness and Lochinver.
And a further three – Kinlochbervie, Scourie and Tongue – could yet be included as well.
The scheme has been spearheaded by Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander, Liberal Democrat MP for Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey.
The expansion of the project and inclusion of the areas of Sutherland was widely welcomed in the north yesterday, but opposition MPs seized on the apparent mix-up.
SNP transport spokesman Angus MacNeil said: “It is astounding that the initial decision to exclude north-west Sutherland may have been made because civil servants based in London did not understand the geography of the area.”
It is understood officials based their study on postcodes and assumed that filling stations in each zone would be relatively close together. Under the criteria, a lower price of fuel in just one filling station in the postcode scuppered the hopes of the zone’s most isolated villages of being included in the scheme.
Lord Thurso, the Lib Dem MP for Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross, immediately contacted the Treasury when the list was published, with his office gathering evidence to persuade officials to revisit the list.
He said: “I’m not surprised that Treasury officials sitting in England or in the central belt of Scotland do not understand the size and complexity of a north-west Sutherland postcode, and I’m sorry they didn’t bother to check that with me.”
A Whitehall source denied last night that a mistake had been made.
He said: “Danny (Alexander) recognises there are some unique circumstances around these two areas and wants to do what he can do to get them on the application. We are just working through the details.”
The IV27 postcode covers from Tongue, west to Durness, Kinlochbervie, Scourie and Lochinver east to Lairg and almost as far as Bonar Bridge.