DRAFT plans for a shake-up of Scotland's ferry services could spell disaster for remote communities, it was claimed last night.

Dr Michael Foxley, leader of Highland Council, warned the network could be set back by more than 20 years unless the Scottish Government amends a draft plan for the future of the services. The plan is currently being consulted on by the local authority.

He criticised proposals for the current car ferry service across the Sound of Mull as well as those for the Small Isles, claiming they would be an economic blow to a series of communities.

The council is due to meet this week to discuss its response to the plan, which was recently published by the Holyrood SNP administration.

But Dr Foxley claimed it had a number of flaws and ministers now have to prove their commitment to small rural communities as much as to urban areas.

He told The Herald: "What is at stake is that over the last 25 years the council and the local communities have been working with ferry company CalMac to build up the ferry services. However, the plan now presented for consultation represents a significant downgrading of these services. We can't start turning the clock back."

He said £35 million had been spent getting new slipways and a new roll-on, roll-off car ferry to serve the Small Isles of Eigg, Muck, Rum and Canna, so these fragile communities had a real chance to grow.

Dr Foxley added: "This summer Eigg, for example, will get five visits a week for the car ferry Loch Nevis.

"The Scottish Government is proposing that be reduced to one a week, with the island being served for the rest of the week by a passenger vessel. That's not progress. I am just back from Eigg and the car ferry was full, and that's in March. To reduce that to one sailing a week would be disastrous."

He was equally concerned by the proposal to reduce the car ferry service between Mull and Ardnamurchan to a passenger-only service.

He said: "We have a vehicular service between Kilchoan and Tobermory 12 months a year and 5000 vehicles a year use it, making an enormous difference to a the communities at the end of the Ardnamurchan Peninsula. Being an integral part of a route which takes people from Oban to Mull then on to Ardnamurchan on to Morvern, Mallaig and Skye, not only affords economic opportunity, it also means they feel much less isolated ."

He said the same arguments applied to Morvern, where the ferry from Lochaline to Fishnish on Mull is earmarked for review and possible withdrawal.

He added: "That service not only carries a lot of timber lorries but more and more tourists and locals use it."

Instead the Scottish Government proposes putting two car ferries on the main route to the mainland between Oban and Craignure, rather then the present one.

Dr Foxley said two big ferries would be welcome , but not if that is the sole vehicular route for Mull.

He added: "I think it quite revealing that those who drew up the draft plan should think that their job was just to get as many cars on and off Mull as possible, rather than thinking about how to improve links to other communities in the Highlands and Islands. We want more links, not fewer."

He was encouraged that any threat to the Mallaig-Armadale service appeared to have been lifted, and said it would have been "utterly ludicrous" to downgrade that when, after decades of campaigning, the Fort William to Mallaig road had been turned into a double-track all the way, and the same had been done for the Armadale to Broadford road on Skye.