Orkney harbours records unexpected £400k windfall from cruise liner income

Orkney’s harbours authority has had more income from cruise liners than expected come their way this summer, as a £400,000 windfall has been recorded.

A meeting of Orkney Council’s harbours authority sub-committee took place this week, in which members were invited to view a revenue budget position for September 30 this year.

Councillor Ivan Taylor noted a “more than anticipated income of £400,000.”

He was told, by the head of marine services and harbour master Jim Buck, this was mainly due to cruise income.

Mr Buck said: “When we set the budget, we didn’t anticipate cruise to come back in the manner it has.

“We thought it was going to be a lot slower start than it has been. We had actually pegged it as a 60% recovery on the 2019 forecast.

“I’m glad to say it’s met the 2019 forecast.”

However, the boost to Orkney’s cruise liner traffic wasn’t enough to stop the harbours recording an overall budget deficit.

Overall, they were over budget by £689,600 for the six months between the beginning of April and the end of September.

Scapa Flow oil port saw a budget deficit of £702,700. The main areas of overspending were harbour launches and towage services.

This was attributed to the rising cost of fuel for the vessels.

Also, less money than expected came in from harbour dues, due to a downturn in the number of tankers visiting the flow.

However, the miscellaneous piers and harbours budget showed a small surplus of £13,100.