Police patrol ports as staff of stricken ferry face violence threat

POLICE are having to monitor bank holidays at Scottish ports as staff are being faced with abuse, including threats to run over workers, from travellers frustrated by ferry fiasco disruption.

Union leaders have warned that the bleak picture of “under pressure” staff could lead to wrong decisions being made about sailing – and risk lives.

They say that issues with abuse and threats to staff has risen in the past five years, as disruption to services has become more acute.

And they say that police are now having to monitor certain Scottish ports when demand on ferries is at its highest, such as during bank holidays, to keep order.

Nautilus International, the union for maritime professionals at sea and ashore has said there have been threats to run people over just to get on board ferries “as if that is going to help the situation”.

At the centre of the row are the continuing issues with the nation’s ageing ferry fleet breaking down, resulting in a string of cancellations and other disruption to services.

In 2022, around some 17 of stateowned ferry operator Calmac’s 31 working ferries deployed across Scotland were past their 25-year-old life expectancy.

The oldest in the Calmac fleet is the Isle of Cumbrae, which is 46 years old.

Meanwhile, two new vessels being built for Calmac, MV Glen Sannox and Hull 802, are still being built, languishing in the now stateowned Ferguson Marine shipyard in Inverclyde, with the costs of their construction soaring from £97 million to nearly £340m and scheduled delivery more than five years late.

Gordon Martin, regional organiser and lead officer for Calmac with the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT) said extra security has been needed to deal with the frustrations of the public.

He told MPS in a ferry resilience inquiry at the Scottish Parliament net zero, energy and transport committee: “Unfortunately, these are kind of societal problems. What can be done, and has been done, is during bank holidays and things like that, police have been made available at certain terminals and additional security [has been brought in] to ensure the safety of workers in particular as people wait to get on and off ferries during particularly busy holiday times.”

Martyn Gray, executive officer with Nautilus, said there was concern that some ferry users have tried to forcibly board ferries in frustration and threatened to run workers over, with issues rising in recent years.

He told MSPS abused staff could then make fatal errors of judgment.