Now SNP’s yard can’t even build model ferries
IT has been a fiasco of epic proportions. But the saga of the SNP’s nationalised shipyard has now taken a bizarre and unexpected little twist.
For Ferguson Marine – which is still building two hugely delayed and massively over-budget CalMac ferries – has mysteriously axed plans for four mini models.
As revealed in The Scottish Mail on Sunday earlier this year, the yard commissioned detailed 1:100 scale replicas of the controversial vessels. The 3ft-long models were to be displayed in cases at a cost of up to £2,000 each.
However, we can now reveal the contract for the tiny boats has been cancelled without explanation as a result of what the yard described as a ‘discontinuation of procedure’.
Critics suggest the firm might be too ashamed to press ahead with mini versions while the full-size vessels, the Glen Sannox and its sister ship known only as Hull 802, are still incomplete.
Tory MSP Graham Simpson last night said: ‘The abrupt cancellation of this contract suggests the SNP-run yard has finally realised how embarrassing it would be if these replicas ever saw the light of day.
‘Given costs continue to spiral and islanders are still waiting five years on for the ships, it begs the question as to why anyone would have wanted a souvenir of this whole sorry fiasco.
‘These plans sounded like a joke from the outset and the focus should be on finally delivering the real-life versions to islanders who have been totally abandoned by this SNP Government.’
The contract for the ferries, signed in 2015, was to provide two new ships to help government-owned CalMac maintain vital services to a number of island communities.
After hitting financial troubles, the shipyard was nationalised in 2019 in a bid to complete construction.
The Glen Sannox was supposed to have been in service by 2018 followed by the other ship a year later on a £97 million ‘fixed price’ contract.
However, the order is five years behind schedule and is now due to cost taxpayers around £300 million.
The high-profile ‘launch’ of the still unseaworthy MV Glen Sannox in 2017 with fake, painted-on windows, sparked fierce criticism by triggering a ‘milestone’ payment of over £1 million to Ferguson Marine.
David Tydeman, chief executive of the Port Glasgow yard, recently told MSPs the completion of Hull 802 would take until 2024 while the Glen Sannox might also experience one to two months of ‘slippage’ on the latest delivery date of March next year.
He said the extra cost of completing the vessels would rise to a maximum of £209.6 million, on top of the initial £97 million. Ferguson Marine was contacted for response.