News Drivetime Thursday September 18th Voting turnout There’s been a steady turnout at all island polling stations today, on one of the busiest polling days in the islands’ history, as people make their decision on the question of possible independence for Scotland. A late surge of voters is expected in the next couple of hours as people travel home from work. Polls close at 10pm, and it’s still possible to return postal ballots to any polling place until then. Counting begins tonight at Lewis Sports Centre as the polls close, with ballot boxes being transported from the southern isles by a chartered boat across the Sound of Barra, and a chartered plane from Benbecula airport. There’s also a contingency plan for a chartered boat across the Sound of Harris in case weather conditions or technical difficulties mean the plane cannot take off. The count will be closely observed in Lewis by representatives of up to 15 Permitted Participants – campaign groups and parties who are entitled to observe the counting process. A local result is expected to be known between 1.30 and 2am, unless southern isles ballot boxes have to take the longer route by sea across the Sound of Harris. In that case it could be tomorrow morning before results are known in the Western Isles. Comhairle nan Eilean Siar’s result will be securely transmitted to Scotland’s Chief Counting Officer, Mary Pitcaithly, who is responsible for collating all regional results to make the national announcement from the Royal Highland Centre at Ingliston between 6.30 and 7.30 tomorrow morning. Fog disrupts travel Thick fog across large parts of Lewis and Harris caused disruption to travel this morning. The 7am sailing from Stornoway to Ullapool by the MV Isle of Lewis was delayed by two and a half hours due to dense fog in the Minch, meaning that later sailings through the day continue to be disrupted. Early sailings by MV Loch Portain across the Sound of Harris were cancelled, also due to the fog, and CalMac apologised to passengers for the disruption in both cases. Flights in and out of Stornoway and Benbecula airports were cancelled or delayed this morning due to the weather, and the Royal Mail plane was also late arriving. Vodafone – wait longer for service The mobile phone provider Vodafone has said it could be several days before a service failure to customers in the Western Isles is put right, after engineers identified a fibre fault. The cable carrying all the mobile traffic has been damaged ‘beyond repair’ according to Vodafone, and will have to be replaced. It will take a few days to resume normal services as Vodafone will need to remove and replace the faulty cable. Once the fibre has been replaced all traffic will be “re-routed” and monitored. There’ll then be a period of monitoring to make sure the work has resolved the issue. Vodafone told customers that the fix is due to take place on Friday the 19th September, although this is subject to change due to outside factors such as weather conditions. BT cable-layer disaster Meanwhile BT is facing a significant delay to their laying of a major fibre-optic cable connection through the islands and across the Minch, after the specialist cable-laying vessel René Déscartes lost the seabed plough in deep water at the Eastern end of the Sound of Harris. The ship was laying cable between Harris and North Uist when a cable snapped, leaving the 8-tonne plough at a depth of 370 feet – too deep for dive recovery teams. The lost equipment’s value is reportedly around £3.6 million, and contractors Orange Marine have not yet set out a recovery plan to BT. The location of the lost plough has been marked as a hazard to shipping with a buoy, and coastguard and other agencies formally notified. Some work on the cable can continue with a remotely operated underwater vehicle.
Posted on: Thu, 18 Sep 2014 15:00:01 +0000
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