COMMUNITY councillors have called for an investigation into the "scandal" of Scotland's new ferry fiasco which they say is threatening local businesses.
Sunart Community Council has strongly criticised the "decades of neglect" that has led to the Corran ferry service being pulled at the weekend with an expectation that it would be out of action for several weeks.
The cost of replacing the two ageing ferries at the centre of a new fiasco is £60m and had been deemed "unaffordable" by some Highland councillors. A business case for a replacement has not identified funding for replacements.
It is the busiest single-vessel ferry route in Scotland, carrying more than 270,000 cars each year, but the return of the main vessel MV Corran to Lochaber has been delayed since October.
A reduced service has been in operation on the route between the Ardnamurchan peninsula and Corran which provides direct road access to Fort William, while repair work is carried out on the main MV Corran vessel.
READ MORE: CalMac uses user priority list as MV Loch Seaforth is sidelined
But after the relief vessel, the Maid of Glencoul broke down on Friday, Highland Council said there could be no service for several weeks.
Video: The 'Old Maid' of Glencoul ferry in operation before it broke down
The community council for Sunart, the rural district in the south west of Lochaber, is among those who have lodged complaints with Highland Council about the breakdown and have demanded an investigation.
Denise Anderson, chairman of the council warned that the "inevitable" breakdown of the MV Maid of Glencoul without any sign of the return of the MV Corran is "threatening the livelihoods of local businesses who depend on freight and tourism, and causing huge disruption to residents, not least those attending hospital appointments".
She said that several local businesses had lost thousands of pounds in revenue since the introduction of the “restricted service” – now exacerbated by the breakdown.
READ MORE: 'Farcical': Faulty part delays return of CalMac ferry sidelined for four months
She said: "The decades of neglect of the Corran Ferry by Highland Council officials and Highland councillors is a scandal which must be investigated in the months to come but with immediate effect we call upon you to try to alleviate the suffering caused."
She said that it was "clear" that the transport minister Kevin Stewart was "seeking to wash his hands of any responsibility".
Mr Stewart has insisted that the operation of the ferries was the responsibility of Highland Council.
The Highland Council previously warned ministers in February during a parliamentary inquiry into the future of ferry services that the risk of breakdown of the two vessels was "significant".
The two existing ferry vessels have been deemed to be in need of "urgent replacement" for some time as MV Corran is 23 years old and the relief vessel is 48 years old.
Even if an order is made now for replacements, the council has told ministers the estimated delivery was four to five years away.
People living in Fort William, Ardgour, Sunart, Ardnamurchan, Moidart, Morar, Morvern and the Isle of Mull are among those who regularly use the ferry.
It is also used by visitors to the area.
Without the ferries, a six-minute ferry journey will now take motorists on a journey of at least one hour and 16 minutes as drivers are forced to drive around Loch Linnhe.
The Sunart council has said there needed to be greater transparency over a likely timetable for a return.
"Rumours abound about refuelling errors, damage to the drive shaft and CalMac’s reluctance to provide the necessary spares," Ms Anderson told the Highland Council. "Your press release over the weekend remains opaque - our communities need to understand if the return of the MV Corran is going to take weeks or months and we need to know now."
READ MORE: ScotGov 'won't intervene' over £60m cost to resolve Corran ferry chaos
Highland Council had put through a request to transfer responsibility for the service to the Scottish Government agency Transport Scotland based on principles set out in the Scottish Ferries Plan, in the hope this would pave the way for a replacements.
The council, meanwhile, has told ministers that it continues to face "significant budget pressures" and its latest capital programme categorised the ferries as "outwith the affordability envelope" and seen as an essential project looking to "attract inward investment" and "additional partnership funding".
Ian Blackford, the former SNP House of Commons leader and MP for Ross, Skye and Lochaber since 2015, said that after being involved in discussions, he hoped that there would be a solution to the breakdown "in a reasonable timeframe".
He hinted that two operators were prepared to offer some kind of support in the short term.
He said: "I recognise that's going to take some weeks and it's not right that the community are left without the service over that period. So there's strenuous efforts going on led by Highland Council to make sure that we can provide an alternative and I'm grateful that there's at least one local operator that's going above and beyond and we've got the potential of offering at least some kind of vessel allowing us to operate a service of some description but then we need to make sure that in doing that any vessel which is offered to us can use slipway on both sides of the Corran channels.
"There's a second potential operator as well but there's no stone been left unturned to make sure that we can achieve a solution and everybody's working together to to that effect."
He added: "I think the biggest issue here is that we've got two ageing vessels operating across the Corran Narrows. Highland Council has known for some time that they needed to find a longer term solution to this so the current administration has inherited this problem. And I think all of us have got a responsibility to get around the table to make sure we can put in place a plan, that we've got a long term solution and that's what we will be doing over the course of the coming weeks and months.
But this is an absolute priority to make sure that the communities can be can be assured that they will have a sustainable service.
"I don't underestimate the scale of the challenge that we face."
The transport minister said on Monday: “The operation of transport links across the Corran Narrows is the responsibility of the Highland Council. Any decisions on maintenance, upgrades, or options to replace ferries would be a matter for them. I would be happy to visit Lochaber in due course, to learn more about the council’s plans for the Corran Narrows.
"The previous Deputy First Minister also announced in the budget process that the Scottish Government would provide full revenue funding to Councils who run their own ferry services. Officials are in discussions with the Highland Council about these costs.”
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