Political influence should be kept at arm’s length from the process of ordering vessels for Scotland’s under-pressure ferry service, an island campaign group has declared.
A day after the disastrous project to build two new ferries at the Ferguson yard in Inverclyde was laid bare in a Holyrood inquiry, the Arran Ferry Action Group said decisions on ferry procurement must be based on cold commercial logic – not politically motivation.
Its intervention comes in the week the Scottish Parliament heard that the two dual-fuelled ferries being built at the now-nationalised Ferguson remain “significantly less than half-built”.
The Arran Ferry Action Group, which has 1,200 supporters on the island, called for Transport Scotland, ferry infrastructure body Caledonian Maritime Assets (CMAL) and operator CalMac to adopt a new approach to vessel ordering, stating that Scotland should look overseas for examples of best practice.
It said attention should be paid to the views of island communities and maritime experts such as Alf Baird and Roy Pedersen.
The group said: “The need to build new ships should not be confused with the wish to preserve shipbuilding jobs on the Clyde or, as in the case of Ardrossan harbour, the regeneration of a small town.
“Subsuming one aim to another or conflating the two, as in the case of Ferguson Marine, will only result in the failure of both.”
The Arran group also offered its view on the Scottish Government’s decision to nationalise Ferguson to deliver the vessels, and the future award of contracts for new ferries.
It is now expected that the cost of building the vessels will be more than double the £97 million specified in the original contract.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel