TRANSPORT Minister Jenny Gilruth needs to fully assure all island dwellers, especially those who are struggling to keep farm or tourist-based small businesses out of their untimely graves, that they have a better future arriving and soon.

We know better than anyone else that we are suffering a backward-moving economy along with the rest of the known world, so she can skip those avenues of guff and get straight down to analysing the historic failure of the Scottish Parliament to deliver even adequate vessels and infrastructure to our islands. The damage to confidence and simple predictability of island life done in the last 10 years, against the stream of official rhetoric, is causing an unhappy reality to be faced by islanders that they do not have a sustainable future on the islands as long as the Scottish Government is failing to back them with real measures, rather than transparent political yack.

How do we know island life is capsizing? Simple measurements. Static or falling incomes in an already marginal area while fuel costs head for £2 per litre. Calmac ferry spaces set to a constant “unavailable”, months in advance, on its website. Residents working or moving away. Second-house owners (there is no such thing as a "second home") unable to find handy locals to clean their business premises.

Much blame has been heaped on the weather for ferry failures, but this argument is as redundant as a rusting hulk in Rosyth or the Clyde. Ships in mid-Atlantic don’t suddenly sink when the weather blows up a bit but they would struggle to tie up in a decent swell. The example of Tiree and Coll shows that the investment in link spans has not been sufficient to assure service. These ports also need protected by sea walls to kill the swell and the undeniable savings all round that would come from the creation of a causeway across the Gunna Sound would mean that only one protected link span was needed.

What is Ms Gilruth going to do?

Peter Isaacson, Hynish, Tiree.

INQUIRY IS NOW OVERDUE

I WRITE with reference to recent letters and articles and in particular Ferguson Marine's inability to quantify a perceived further delay in delivery of MV Glen Sannox due to cables of inadequate length being installed ("Anger as ministers refuse to discuss Calmac ferries’ ‘secret’ cost rises and delays", The Herald, March 16). Ferguson's claim that these cables were installed pre-nationalisation is hardly credible.

To have installed electrical cables at that stage, pre-launch, would have required cable supports in place, including structural penetrations and routings compatible with piping, ventilation and other services being defined. If such services were not in place, why would cables be?

On a previous occasion, the yard declared that the bulbous bow was reconstructed because "it did not look nice". I think Lloyds Register, the classification authority, might take a different view of this action.

The yard can only claim delay in delivery due to force majeur or owners' additional requirements and any self-inflicted wounds have to be absorbed in the yard's delivery schedule. We are of course well beyond such niceties.

A public inquiry is now long overdue, the only criteria for which is "the existence of public concern", but it must be convened by a Government minister. Some hope.

Norman Brown, former director and general manager, Ferguson Shipbuilders Ltd, Largs.

WORRY OVER EV CHARGE POINTS

IT was interesting to read Thomas GF Gray’s letter (March 17) about the lack of incentive for an energy supplier to provide a smart meter that actually works. Meanwhile it seems likely that a considerable number of consumers are about to lose grants for installing domestic charge points for electric vehicles, work which, under a UK Government scheme to encourage the move away from internal combustion engines, must be completed by the end of this month.

Whether this situation is unique to those in the area where Scottish Power Energy Networks is the private monopoly supplier of infrastructure is not clear; but what does seem sufficiently clear is that the lack of action or even contact from SPEN towards necessary upgrades to "looped" mains supplies (those shared with neighbouring properties) will prove expensive and frustrating for people who with reasonable expectations started the move to an emissions-free vehicle, sometimes many months ago.

It is too long since the last storm for there to be a credible excuse that every engineer was needed for restoring damaged supply infrastructure. There is inevitable curiosity about whether this company, and if so others, have had a financial incentive not to carry out timeous upgrades to their outdated domestic supply cables.

William Patterson, East Linton.

* I WAS interested in Thomas GF Gray's experiences with Smart Metering Systems (SMS).

I've recently had two smart meters installed by this company. I am also a Shell Energy customer by default and have an In House Display unit (IHD) which I was told would supply me with useful information. It's now been two weeks since the install and the IHD is "still waiting".

Shell has informed me that the whole data-sharing process could be six weeks, which was contrary to the SMS installer, who said it would take around 48 hours.

The IHD I hoped would alert my fellow household colleagues of the pain they were inflicting on me as the bill payer.

Instead I foolishly installed the Shell app on my phone which works perfectly, but only I am aware of the pain. It' s great you can watch your life force slowing ebbing away with every shower or cup of tea.

From conversation with the SMS engineer I understand the smart meter readings go to a "hub" where the various energy suppliers can access this data. The new IHDs get their data from this hub and this will facilitate the moving of customers between energy companies without having to change any equipment. It does seem to make sense if it actually works.

Anyway, good to know from Mr Gray that there is £10 waiting on me once my patience dissolves.

Iain McDermid, Alexandria.

LET THERE BE LIGHT

MAUREEN Sugden’s article on Daylight Saving Time in the US becoming permanent ("Issue of the day: Stopping the clocks in the USA", The Herald, March 18) is very interesting. I would hope we could do the same in the UK.

I think that longer daylight during dreary winter months would be much appreciated.

John K Richmond, Lochwinnoch.