Thursday 12 July 2012

One of the differences between Northmavine and the south end of the mainland of Shetland.

I have now lived here in Shetland for just over twelve and a bit years, starting down at the south end in Scatness, where my mother had lived very happily for about twenty-five years and winding up here in Hillswick, in Northmavine, approximately seventy miles north of my starting point.

Hillswick and Scatness are very different places. For a start, Scatness is very close to Sumburgh Airport so there are a much greater amount of buses going up and down to Lerwick which is a great benefit to the people living there. It’s not the same in Hillswick, where there is a bus down to Lerwick at 7.30am and 10.00am and one home at 5.10pm. There is also a shoppers bus, leaving Lerwick at 3.10 for Hillswick and the surrounding areas every second Tuesday and on a Sunday there is nothing, time to get a taxi – if you can.

Very different to the south end where the buses operate seven days a week. I’m tempted to think that some of us here in Northmavine should benefit from the same service because we might need to get to the airport on a Sunday, or perhaps to Lerwick on our day off to go to the museum or the swimming pool for a little relaxation in the same way that the people in the south end can do, without any problem, seven days a week.

 It does surprise me that nothing has been done about this. Why not? Why has no-one shouted and cried about the non-existent Sunday service, or the fact that there is no 10.00am service on a Wednesday?

Why is it impossible for us here in Northmavine to enjoy a couple of pints with our family and friends in Lerwick on a Friday or Saturday evening and then get a bus home?

We don’t get the same service that the south end get, do we. I don’t know why but it isn’t fair, is it???