Dead in the water! SNP ferries may be obsolete ALREADY

TWO ferries being built at a nationalised shipyard are already obsolete despite swallowing £240million of taxpayers’ cash, the site’s former owner has claimed.

The vessels will use liquefied natural gas (LNG) which has been found to produce emissions ‘more toxic than diesel fumes’, Jim McColl claimed.

Mr McColl, whose firm previously owned Ferguson Marine, also attacked the ‘catastrophic’ decision to nationalise the yard, saying the business would be ‘flying high’ if it had not come into public control.

Speaking at Holyrood’s public audit committee, he said: ‘So you are now completing two vessels that are obsolete, and you’re not going to run them on LNG anyway, because the infrastructure is not there.

‘And if you did, you’re going to be putting out poisonous gases between Brodick and Ardrossan and the other routes as well. These are not green vessels.’

He said an industry report had found emissions from such vessels ‘are 80 per cent more toxic than diesel fumes’.

The Glen Sannox, and a second vessel known as Hull 802, are being built at the Ferguson shipyard in Port Glasgow.

A feud between the former operator of the yard and the Caledonian Maritime Assets Limited (CMAL) quango over the contract led to the administration of the yard, which was subsequently nationalised by the SNP Government.

The project has been beset by problems, leading to the cost soaring from the original £97million contract to an estimated £240million, with the completion date running five years behind schedule.

Mr McColl told MSPs ‘There’s no bunkering arrangements in place for LNG, and it’s going to cost a lot to put that in place.’

He also blamed a problem which has seen hundreds of cables needing to be replaced on a decision to ‘wipe out’ the former top management team after nationalisation.

Mr McColl claimed former turnaround director Tim Hair is ‘not an expert’ on ferry projects, and argued that the delays are down to the wrong vessels being built, insufficient development of the specification, and the ‘catastrophic’ decision to nationalise the yard.

Discussing the impact on staff at the yard, he said: ‘There are a few of them that have suffered depression from what’s happened to them, because they have been sullied and their reputation has been sullied by some of the false statements that have been made about the quality of work prior to the Government taking over.’

The Scottish Government has maintained the contract saved Ferguson from closure and protected jobs.

But Mr McColl said: ‘That’s just absolute nonsense, that anything negative would have happened to this yard if we hadn’t got the order. I wish we hadn’t got it, because we’d be flying high now with a whole load of different orders, including Type 31 destroyers, working with Babcock.’

Scottish Tory transport spokesman Graham Simpson said: ‘Jim McColl’s testimony completely undermines the SNP’s sole defence for the entire ferries fiasco, namely that Ferguson Marine would have folded and hundreds of jobs would have been lost had they failed to award the yard the contract.

‘His evidence was a damning indictment of the SNP’s role in a scandal that has betrayed both our island communities and taxpayers.’

The Scottish Government said: ‘While LNG is not a long-term alternative to MGO [marine gas oil] for ferries, it is a proven technology that offers around 20 per cent less carbon emissions than MGO. LNG infrastructure [is] being developed as part of port expansion and improvement works.’

‘More toxic than diesel fumes’