Council ferries ‘unsustainable’ without extra £500,000 a year

ARGYLL and Bute Council’s ferry services are facing an ‘unsustainable’ £500,000 funding shortfall every year, its leader has said, while calling for ministers to honour a ‘fair funding’ pledge in today’s (Thursday’s) budget.

ASP Ship management operates four ferry services on behalf of Argyll and Bute Council: between Islay and Jura, Luing and Seil, Seil and Easdale, and Lismore and Port Appin.

The average cost per year to the council is £1,176,578, but the Scottish Government only gives a grant of £675,000, leaving a funding gap of £500,000.

Currently both Orkney Islands and Shetland Islands Councils are having on-going discussions with the Scottish Government and Transport Scotland regarding the funding of internal ferry services, which cost the councils more than £6 million each year. Like Argyll and Bute Council, both councils have a gap between ferries expenditure and grants received.

In a Holyrood debate last week, MSPs secured support across the chamber ‘forcing the Scottish Government to accept that they must honour their commitment to fair funding for internal ferry services in the Northern Isles’.

The motion cited transport minister MacKay’s previous that ‘provision of former Derek assertion transport services should not place a disproportionate financial burden on any council, particularly with reference to revenue support for ferry services’.

Argyll and Bute Council leader Aileen Morton welcomed the Scottish Parliament’s decision calling for the Scottish Government to spell out how it will ensure local ferry services are fairly funded.

Councillor Morton said: ‘Local people in some of our most remote rural and island communities depend on the ferry services that Argyll and Bute Council operates. These services may be small, but they are vital. They cost us as a council over £1.1 million to run but the funding we receive falls short by over £500,000. The way these are funded isn’t sustainable – and the people who need the services deserve a better solution.

‘We are engaging with local communities about future ferry provision and would welcome the Scottish Government backing fair and equitable funding for all ferry services, as proposed in the Scottish Ferries Plan.’

The Scottish Government is due to announce its draft spending plans for 2017-18 in today’s (Thursday’s) budget.

In a bid to plug its projected £20 million budget black hole, Argyll and Bute Council launched a consultation, which closed on Monday, to identify cost-saving measures. These include increasing ferry charges on the Islay/Jura ferry service ‘to better reflect actual cost, with council staff managing ships instead of an external company’.

But the proposals have drawn fire. One Jura resident said it was ‘like proposing a Jura-only tax’. He added: ‘This short, lifeline crossing, bears the dubious honour of having among the highest fares per kilometre of any crossing in Europe.

‘Furthermore, since centralising much of Jura’s service provision through Islay was a key part of a previous money-saving plan, raising revenue through the necessity of residents gaining access to such essentials as eye tests, dental care, high school parents’ meetings and hospital appointments makes this is a particularly unjustifiable proposal.’

A council report, presented to the Environment, Development and Infrastructure Committee earlier in the autumn, stated: ‘Most of the council ferries will require replacement over the next few years (indeed several are overdue). The replacement of the passenger only ferries combined will cost circa £400,000 and the total combined cost of replacement car ferries is estimated at £3.4 million.’

The council plans to terminate ASP’s contracts when they end next year on June 8 for the Luing, Easdale and Lismore services and on December 31 for the Jura/Islay service. The council will then have ‘full responsibility for the safe operation of the four ferry services’.