Smaller ferries for smaller islands are what we need

Headlines like the recent ‘Colonsay shop running out of supplies’ should not be appearing.

CalMac, as usual, claims ‘safety of passengers and vessel is our Master’s first priority when considering berthing’. No one disagrees with that, but the skippers have to make their judgements with the vessels and berthing arrangements which the company’s policy has provided.

Colonsay is exposed and Scalasaig harbour is tight for manoeuvring a largish ferry. Fair Isle, however, is even more exposed, but it has adapted to its circumstances, its special needs met by special measures, otherwise it would probably now be uninhabited.

I mentioned the ‘weather forecast’ island of Utsira in another publication recently. Utsira lies in the North Sea about 10 miles off the SW coast of Norway. A Colonsay respondent replied that he had looked at pictures and Utsira seemed, unlike Colonsay, to have a fine sheltered harbour for its ferry. Some photographs certainly suggest that, but an aerial view available on the web of the whole island shows a better overall picture of the place and reveal the approaches are far from unproblematical in bad weather, and the harbour might be considered restricted for a large CalMac-type ferry. Utsira does have the advantage of an alternative landing on the opposite side of the island, but, of course, two harbours also means extra maintenance costs.

The main point is that Utsira has its own (smallish) dedicated ferry, suitable for its own needs and facilities. This normally makes three trips to the mainland each day (four on Friday and two on Saturdays) and if one trip is delayed then the boat is ready to take up service again as soon as the weather moderates.

Colonsay, on the other hand, is appended to the services for its larger neighbouring islands. It gets the large vessels which are designed for these quite different services, and also gets the awkward end of the timetable. CalMac’s current shortage of relief tonnage doesn’t help, either, since the resulting inflexibility means a missed call can’t always be quickly replaced. Four services a day to the mainland at convenient times remains a dream far out of reach for Colonsay at present, and unless CalMac/CMAL’s policies for their smaller islands are changed will likely remain so for a long time.

There are political and organisational aspects to this, too. Utsira Kommune (local council) has far more powers than Colonsay’s equivalent, and far more say in how their ferry is run. Utsira has, in fact, the same legal powers to organise its affairs as Greater Oslo. A small community council in Scotland has little more powers than those of commenting on already imposed policy.

Arthur Blue, Ardrishaig.