Call for minister to intervene in ferry row

THE CHAIRMAN of the comhairle’s Transportation and Infrastructure Committee has called for the intervention of the Minister for Transport and the Islands, Humza Yousaf, to address significant and growing concerns over the performance of Transport Scotland and CalMac following the recent disruption to ferry services across the Clyde and Hebrides network.

Councillor Uisdean Robertson said he has personally been inundated over the past several weeks by a huge amount of complaints regarding the levels of service, the extent of disruption and the lack of effective communications by CalMac.

‘The non-availability of a single vessel, the MV Clansman, has had wide-ranging implications across the network. I have received complaints from many members of the public and businesses in the Western Isles, and I am aware that the implications have been felt in other communities elsewhere in the network,’ said Councillor Robertson.

‘The lack of resilience and of suitable spare capacity in the fleet is unacceptable and must be dealt with by the minister as a matter of urgency.

‘We and colleagues in HITRANS and other affected local authorities have made several strong representations to Transport Scotland and CalMac management but we seem to be getting nowhere.

‘We really do question the performance and decision-making of both bodies – a far greater number of these senior management and administrative posts should be based within the communities they are supposed to serve.

‘The resilience of the fleet was only one area of concern; another is a complete lack of progress in addressing the shortterm challenges associated with a lack of capacity during the peak tourism period on the Stornoway-Ullapool, Uig-Lochmaddy-Tarbert, and Sound of Harris routes.’

Councillor Robertson said the CalMac Community Board met recently and that CalMac has accepted the offer of the board to work with the operator in ‘formulating a plan, including more robust contingency and prioritisation measures, which will help to protect the lifeline ferry services in the short, medium and long terms’.

But Councillor Robertson added: ‘While we would welcome this announcement, we see the need for a higher-level intervention by the minister himself. CalMac, after all, is only the operator of the service procured by Transport Scotland on behalf of Scottish ministers. Ministers cannot be happy with these ferry services and we would ask Mr Yousaf to personally intervene.’