The leader of Orkney Islands Council has accused the Scottish Government of “blatant discrimination” in the funding of local ferry services.
While the Western Isles routes are served by public company CalMac, Orkney ferries are provided by the local authority.
Councillor James Stockan has now sent a strongly-worded letter to First Minister Nicola Sturgeon.
He stated the Government’s repeated failure to fully fund Orkney’s inter-island ferries had left remote and vulnerable communities with an inferior service compared to other areas of Scotland.
Mr Stockan said it was not fair to treat Orkney differently to other island communities.
He said: “It is more than five years since the Government agreed that the costs involved should not result in an unfair financial burden for councils like ours.
“But today, there is still no commitment from Ministers to provide us with full and fair funding over the long term.
“Unless that changes, Orkney will be left with the oldest fleet and the highest fares in the country – and that can only be described as blatant discrimination.”
After a lengthy battle, the council secured £5.5million in additional Government funding for inter-island ferry services for 2018-2019.
Further funding of £5.3million was provided by the Government for the current financial year – but this was insufficient to meet the ever-increasing burden of operating an ageing fleet of vessels.
A Scottish Government spokesman said: “The Scottish Government understands the significant financial challenges that can fall on individual local authorities and we have made clear our commitment to Orkney internal ferry services with the provision of additional revenue funding support totalling £10.8m in the last two years.
“We continue to discuss long term solutions with both Orkney Islands Council and Shetland Islands Council.”
Councillor Stockan said: “This is a burden that most other Scottish councils do not have to bear.”