Yet more delay with new ferry

The date for the delivery of MV Glen Sannox has slipped yet again and is now projected for the fourth quarter of 2022, it was confirmed to the Arran Ferry Committee (AFC) this week.

The new Arran ferry which is now twice over budget and more than three years late had been expected three months earlier, a date given only last month.

After the handover to CalMac, the company will need to complete trials and crew familiarisation before the ferry enters service, which may now not be until 2023.

As previously announced, the MV Glen Sannox will not reliably operate from Ardrossan until the proposed upgrades are complete and the AFC has asked that all parties work together to provide some outline of what services and timetables can be provided to allow for business planning through the disruption when the ferry will move to Troon.

Further work is planned to upgrade Gourock.

This will also provide alternative berthing for MV Glen Sannox, though dates are not confirmed.

AFC met face-to-face for the first time this year for its October meeting on Monday night and was given the updates by Caledonian Maritime Assets Ltd (CMAL) chief executive officer Kevin Hobbs and Brian Fulton, CMAL head of business support. Also in attendance was Kenneth Gibson MSP and his researcher.

Mr Hobbs also presented the CMAL 10-year investment plan, which is published on its website, and updated the committee on the various activities it is undertaking.

The plan includes six major vessels, 10 small vessels in a two-phase programme, three vessels for the Gourock– Dunoon–Kilcreggan routes and two freight vessels for the northern routes.

The first five years of the plan are funded as part of £580m announced earlier this year.

This funding is in addition to the costs of the MV Glen Sannox and hull 802 vessels currently being constructed at Ferguson’s Marine Port Glasgow.

The funding also covers port improvements for ports under CMAL’s ownership and discussions continue to confirm the investment to rejuvenate the CalMac fleet and introduce greater resilience.

Future technology being considered includes the next generation of electric or hybrid vessels.

Future hydrogen technology is anticipated, though it is still to be fully proven.

In an open and respectful meeting, CMAL also answered a range of questions on matters under its control including the recent tidal restrictions which have been introduced at Claonaig.

These have been investigated with no clear reason identified.

CMAL proposes to carry out work to extend the length of the slipway, similar to the work completed at Lochranza.

CMAL is also progressing the planned engineering evaluation to mitigate interruptions in service due to adverse winds.

This was commissioned earlier this year following a request from the AFC.

Concerns about the ongoing reliability of the Brodick Passenger Access System (PAS) have been investigated.

The service is improving and the annual running costs of the PAS are in line with similar installations.

It was also confirmed that the old pier at Brodick is unsafe and plans are in place for its removal before the year end.

The question was asked about the future of the lessees of the old terminal building and the need to maintain the property.

This is being monitored by CMAL property managers to ensure the long-term care and maintenance of the property.

The committee left CMAL management with a clear requirement that the fleet and ports needed to deliver a much higher level of service than was currently provided.

North Ayrshire councillor Alex Gallagher, who has the islands portfolio on the cabinet, has written an article following revelations in the Arran Banner last month, and more recently in the national press, that the Ardrossan to Brodick route has suffered almost 20 per cent cancelled sailings this year.

This will come as no surprise to those living on Arran. Shocking perhaps, but not surprising. In the last few years, Arran has had an ever worsening ferry service. Businesses and jobs are in jeopardy and, despite continual promises from Scottish ministers, there seems no end and no solution to the problem. But let’s be clear: the current situation was predictable. The woeful level of ferry service currently being suffered by islanders was never inevitable. There are two major policy decisions, both taken on political grounds by the Scottish Government, that make these failures a true scandal.

The first such decision was the Scottish Government’s introduction of a subsidy to ferry fares under the pretence they were delivering a system called Road Equivalent Tariff (RET). But, as many residents of Arran will know, the fares subsidy is only a part of a full RET system. It is basic economics that a fares subsidy will result in greater use of the service, meaning the ferries will wear out more quickly. In practical terms, a ferry with a predicted life of 25 years, having to make more trips carrying more cars and foot passengers may only have a useful life of 20 years. This in turn means, under a full RET system, you have to plan to build replacement vessels to an accelerated schedule. Unfortunately, and disgracefully, the Scottish Government made no such plans. The truly astonishing and unforgivable fact is that the tonnage of vessels launched in 2007-2021, under the SNP, is half the tonnage that joined the fleet in the previous 14 years. The result is an ageing fleet which fails more often and needs constant maintenance and is too often out of service with no back-up vessels available. The symptom of the problem may be operational failure, but there can be no doubt that the real failure lies at the door of the Scottish Government’s lack of strategic planning.

It is little short of criminal negligence to introduce a ferry subsidy but not to implement the other improvements necessary to deal with the inevitable consequences of the extra traffic generated by the subsidy.

The second fatal decision, directly pertinent to Arran, was to award the ferry contracts for two radically new ferry designs to Ferguson of Port Glasgow under a senior management with SNP sympathies but no experience in shipbuilding. Whether the yard could deliver the ferries on time and on specification was apparently of secondary importance to the impression of politicians riding to the rescue. But the price has been paid by the islanders in disgraceful ferry services and broken promises. It is no exaggeration to say that the present situation amounts to a betrayal of the islands and island residents.

Which brings us to Ardrossan harbour and the repeated delays to the upgrades necessary to accommodate the new vessel should it ever arrive.

It is proving frustratingly difficult to achieve agreement between and among the Scottish Government, Peel Ports and the various arms of government involved. I fear that if a decision is not taken soon, the harbour upgrade will become a bigger soap opera than the MV Glen Sannox.

Which raises the question, as suggested by Katy Clark MSP: Is it now time to bring the harbour back into public ownership? It would certainly reduce the number of organisations with influence on the project, reduce the complexity of decision-making and give the people of North Ayrshire a measure of control over one of their most important public assets.

It is five years since the Labour administration in NAC led the successful campaign to save the Ardrossan-Brodick route in anticipation of hosting a new ferry.

Those years have been a rollercoaster of emotions and expectations. It is frustrating that some of these expectations have not come to fruition but we will continue to fight for the service that we believe the people of Arran and North Ayrshire need and deserve.