THE £230M GHOST SHIPS
Pictures expose shocking state of stricken ferries
Rusting in pieces, the shocking condition of Scotland’s stricken super-ferries can be revealed today.
Detailed photographs show how the condition of the two partly-built ferries, which have already cost Scots around £130m with another £100m committed, is deteriorating badly as they languish at a Clyde shipyard. Maritime architects asked to examine the pictures, taken by The Post from the water, voiced concern yesterday, saying there was clear visible damage and extensive remedial work would be needed before the ships could ever be completed.
Experts warned the final cost of the ferries, already years behind schedule, could reach £300m and called for them to be scrapped.
Consultant Roy Pedersen said: “The Government now needs to have the courage to change course.”
The shocking condition of Scotland’s delayed £200 million superferries can be revealed today.
Our exclusive photographs, taken last week, show the ferries streaked with rust, already needing restoration and repairs, and with no sign of work under way as they languish at a Clyde shipyard.
The Glen Sannox and her sister ship – Vessel 802 – should have been serving island communities around Scotland already. Instead, they are years from completion as the projected £100m costs double – and experts warn could even triple before the ships are completed.
Experts who examined our photographs warned the ships were slipping into disrepair and should not be exposed to the elements. Naval architects pointed to deformed steel plates on the side of the Glen Sannox, which could indicate structural weaknesses, and also said such a young ship should not be so rusty.
The original £97m contract was for the construction of two new ferries by 2018, but a government report published in December said another £110m must be spent and both ships won’t be on the seas until 2022. That’s on top of £45m of government loans to Ferguson’s, which were written off.
Industrialist Jim McColl, who owned Ferguson’s before it went bust and nationalised last year, told The Post the final cost of the two ferries could be at least £300m. He says the ships should be scrapped. Alf Baird, who sits on the government’s Ferry Industry Advisory Group, also said the final figure will be at least £300m and he urged the government to scrap the ferries and start again.
Both men warn the government’s new timescale set out by Tim Hair, who was parachuted in to rescue the ailing project, is not achievable and it may take another year to finish the ferries, meaning they will be five years overdue.
Ferguson’s collapsed into administration last year amid a contract dispute between the shipyard
and Caledonian Maritime Assets Limited (CMAL), the government quango that owns ferries serving the west of Scotland.
Mr McColl has blamed CMAL for making costly design changes, while CMAL chief executive Kevin Hobbs said there were only 81 changes, which cost just £750,000, far less than the additional £66m demanded by Ferguson’s before it went bust.
Mr McColl believes the ferries will end up costing taxpayers more than three times the price of the £97m contract awarded to Ferguson’s in 2015 even though it was the most expensive bid.
He said: “The government says it’s £110m to finish it but you’ve got to include the £45m that was lent to Ferguson’s, because that went into the ship. That’s in the costs.
“So there is £135m in those two ships just now, if you include the loan and the £90m already spent on them. And, since they took over in August, they’ve been covering the costs of all the people in the yard, which I reckon is costing them between £1.5m and £2m a month to run the yard, without any real progress.
“Tim Hair said they need at least seven months to decide what they need to do and how they want to finish them. So the cost of the ferries is currently sitting at £255m, and I reckon it could go to £300m. I don’t think the timescales are achievable.”
Dr Baird, former professor of Maritime Business at Edinburgh Napier University, who sits on the government’s Ferry Industry Advisory Group, also predicted further delays and a final figure of more than £300m. He previously said the ferries should be downgraded to save on costs but now believes they should be scrapped.
He said: “If we could re-specify the two vessels to carry 500 passengers instead of 1,000 we could take that £110m overspend down to about £50m or £60m.
“They could just make it a more normal ferry, what I call a utilitarian island ferry, with lino instead of plush carpets. You don’t need the art treasures, the a la carte restaurants for a one-hour voyage to Arran. I live on Orkney and we’re quite used to just a bacon roll and a coffee.
“But I would now go as far as to say scrap them. For £110m you could bring in the best standardised
production people and build four ferries at Ferguson’s.”
Roy Pedersen, a consultant who sits on the Ferry Industry Advisory Group, has also called for the ferries to be scrapped. He told a parliamentary inquiry last week the decision to award the contract to Ferguson’s could be down to either “incompetence, vested interest or corruption”.
After looking at the new pictures of the Glen Sannox, taken by The Post on Tuesday, he said: “It appears the condition has deteriorated quite seriously. Who knows what the ultimate cost will be? Whatever it is going to be, one could get a much better solution for the money. The government needs to have the courage to change course.”
In a submission to a parliamentary inquiry, Dr Baird calculated each of the 127 car parking spaces on the ferry would cost more than £800,000. He has since increased that figure to at least £1m.
He said: “I think it will exceed £1m per car space because if the government is going to finish these boats it will cost £150m per boat. And you can add at least six months to a year to the current timescale predictions.
“I taught maritime economics in Norway for 10 years. Scotland really is a basket case. We can’t produce two vessels. Norway produced 200 ferries in the last 20 years.
“We won’t see the current fleet of 30 CalMac ferries replaced for more than 60 years, at the current rate of development. That means a lot of the islanders won’t see a new boat in their lifetime. It means the collapse of island economies, eventually. There will be migration because these islands depend on ferries and they are not being served properly.”
Jim McColl said repeated “interventions and interference” by CMAL led to delays and spiralling costs and told The Post he will appear before the inquiry to give “detailed evidence”.
Trade union GMB, which represents the shipyard workers, said both CMAL and Ferguson Marine share responsibility for the problems.
Gary Cook, GMB regional organiser for shipbuilding, said: “The wrong people were put on the job to run the project to start with, the project was started too early – there was a rush to get the ships started. Delivery dates were way too ambitious for firstclass ferries to be built by what was effectively a start-up business.
“The management team wouldn’t listen to the workforce. They said they were going to build two ships side by side on the slipway but they were constantly being told that wasn’t feasible. There wasn’t enough space, the ground wasn’t strong enough to take two ships and it wasn’t safe. Yet there was blind disregard for hundreds of years of shipbuilding experience.”
When asked if the ferries should be scrapped or finished, he said: “There are going to have to be some tough decisions made. It’s definitely doable. At the end of this process, I believe there will be quality ships fit for purpose.”
The Scottish Government said: “Tim Hair’s report makes clear that significant remedial work is necessary to bring the vessels up to the required standard. This work is under way and will have to be approved by appropriate regulatory bodies before entering service. Tim Hair is a qualified marine engineer and has a track record of stabilising companies in difficult situations.
“We welcome the independent inquiry and have been as transparent as possible given the constraints of commercial sensitivities. We are actively engaging with the inquiry and are happy to answer any questions the committee might wish to raise.”