'Indescribable chaos': CalMac chief defends 'no mainland ferries' move

Transport minister Kevin Stewart has been asked by a business group in Lochboisdale on South Uist about a compensation scheme to help the island get over the disruption.

It comes after Scottish Government-owned ferry operator CalMac announced updates to routes across its network and apologised to customers for the disruption.

The CalMac chief moved to defend the hit on South Uist after Mustapha Hocine, a North Uist councillor on Comhairle nan Eilean Siar complained to him that the move showed "total contempt and disregard to the Uist community".

He said: "Your proposed deployment will almost certainly leave Uist with no sailings at a time when our fragile economy is trying to recover from the struggles of the last few years which have been exacerbated by the poor level of service your company has delivered.

READ MORE: Compensation considered by ministers over 'no mainland ferries' crisis

Mr Hockine , who is vice chairman of the council's education, sport and children's services committee added: "It is totally unacceptable to take the risk of leaving Uist without a connection when vessels are deployed to provide double service to other islands. It is very sad that after all this time, your company does not seem to have learned anything from the indescribable chaos you have caused to the island community. If this behaviour was happening anywhere else in the country your company would have been severely penalised.

We can easily see that the people who are making decisions that impact severely on our community are not accountable to the people they pretend to serve. When there is direct accountability to the communities you serve, only then will your company improve. There is an urgent need for serious reorganisation and democratisation of the decision-making process in your company which should involve the communities that are directly impacted by your decisions."

But Mr Drummond has responded to Mr Stewart by email stating that the decision to cancel the South Uist service was taken "as an absolute last resort and I wish to emphasise how sorry we are that this decision was necessary".

He said: "As you will be aware, we have a number of our major vessels unavailable at the moment through a combination of technical faults and annual overhaul. Due to these events coinciding we are extremely stretched, which has resulted in us reluctantly having to cancel some services.

"The decisions we have had to make to ensure we provide services across the network to the best of our ability, given the vessels we have available, have only been arrived at after extensive and careful consideration about how best to manage the situation across the entire network with limited resources.

READ MORE: Ferguson Marine: Calls for public enquiry over £500m ferries bill

"Our primary goal is always to maintain 100% of services to every community on every route, but as the operator of the contract we can only use the vessels that are provided to us as part of that contract. I am sure you know that we do not order, design, build or own any vessels in the fleet, as those responsibilities lie elsewhere.

"You will also know that we have no spare vessels to use when a vessel is unavailable, as all vessels in the fleet operate at all times and therefore, we have no choice but to move vessels around the network to provide the best service possible in the circumstances. We always attempt to charter additional vessels whenever possible, but there is a very limited number of vessels that can operate in our seas and to the west coast ports, and are available for charter.

"I very much understand and appreciate the frustration felt by communities when faced with the current situation, but there is not a single person in CalMac who isn’t working as hard as possible to provide the best service can. It is not in anybody’s interests for these cancellations to occur but without additional capacity to cover services when such disruption occurs, we have no choice but to take these very difficult decisions.

"I can assure you that we are doing all that we can to re-instate services as quickly as possible, but in the meantime, we have increased sailings on the Sound of Barra to provide additional capacity on that route. I am deeply sorry for the cancellations that we are having to implement at the present time in order to provide a spread of services across the whole network."

Three of CalMac's ageing fleet, MV Caledonian Isles, MV Hebridean Isles and MV Clansman remain out of action as the summer timetable from April 1 begins on Saturday after weeks on the sidelines for repairs after problems discovered after overhauls.

Services to Islay, Arran, Coll and Tiree and the Small Isles are among those affected by changes announced by CalMac on Wednesday.

But CalMac confirmed that services between Mallaig/Oban and Lochboisdale on South Uist will be cancelled altogether between April 5 and May 13.

This is due to the need to redeploy vessels elsewhere on the network while it continues to manage the delays experienced in vessel overhaul and additional technical issues within the fleet.

Additional daily services to the Sound of Barra will be available to provide a connection for Uist traffic.

Mr Stewart has said that a compensation scheme had been suggested by a Lochboisdale business group and that he would "need to consider this further".

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South Uist has been badly hit by a series of disruptions because of ferry failures for over a year.

Lochboisdale, the port which links South Uist to the mainland was out of action to ferries between September 24 and October 8 to allow for repairs to the linkspan used by the ferry.

A routine annual inspection by specialist engineers and Caledonian Maritime Assets Limited (CMAL), which owns the ferry terminal, revealed a number of lifting ropes on the linkspan which need to be replaced at the earliest opportunity. Last year’s inspections showed no issues.

In August, islanders complained that shops had to ration essential items amid widespread ferry cancellations.

It all comes just two days after island ferry service had to be suspended after an engine failure with a CalMac vessels that was due to be phased out.

Mr Drummond warned earlier this month that the next one or two years “will be challenging” due to the age of the country’s fleet.

There are four ferries being built in Turkey, along with Glen Sannox and the as-yet-unnamed hull 802, which have faced major delays and cost overruns during construction at the Scottish Government-owned Ferguson Marine shipyard in Port Glasgow.

People travelling to and from Arran are among those who have faced disruption due to the ageing ferry fleet and the need for maintenance and repairs and are currently running on a one instead of two ferry services.