The Chair of the CNES Transport & Infrastructure Committee on the ferry situation
Uist is a special place that offers so much to those of us who live here. We afford a special welcome to visitors who come to experience our beautiful islands in increasing numbers each year. In return for fond memories of their time in Uist these visitors provide revenue and trade that sustains island businesses and helps them trade year-round. We locals are so grateful to have restaurants to visit, shops for our own supplies and a distillery for a bottle of Downpour Gin, but without the seasonal visitor we would have fewer services and less choice. The fond memories of holidays to Uist mean the same visitors will buy Salar Salmon on the shelves of their local supermarket or order online for a Hebridean candle. Our ability to work and therefore live in Uist is anchored in the welcome we provide to visitors.
The unreliability of our ferry services and the catalogue of poor decision making by those Scottish Government-owned central belt-based bodies – Calmac, CMAL and Transport Scotland – are undermining our islands’ economy, rendering the very viability of many tourism focussed businesses uncertain.
As I write today Uist is without any ferry service to the mainland with MV Hebrides and MV Lord of the Isles out of service for repair. This doomsday scenario is the inevitable culmination of decades of underinvestment, coupled with dreadful decision making when Government belatedly acted. When things seemed as bad as they could get, the same organisations have visited the double whammy of removing the Mezzanine deck on many Hebrides sailings this Summer followed by the unprecedented 6-month closure of Uig pier from October. It is difficult not to despair!
I am proud that I have been afforded the trust of my fellow elected Members in being appointed to the role of Chair of Transportation for a second term. While it would be fair to say the role brings challenges it is one, I enjoy greatly.
Strong representations from elected members, businesses and Community Councils have been ignored by Calmac who have ploughed on with their decision to reduce the use of the Mezzanine deck on MV Hebrides this summer. This costs us 18 car spaces on each affected journey with the cost to Uist and Harris economies put at some £3M – £5M. This cost has been passed on to us rather than Government meeting an increased crewing cost that Calmac had proposed to Government of £800,000. This cost is what Calmac say they need to employ additional crew to maintain the contracted timetable and full vessel capacity. Whether we accept Calmac are correct in this assertion is a different issue however Scottish Government chose to believe the Calmac argument for removing the Mezzanine deck and chose not to meet the crew cost instead passing on a huge economic cost to our community. This is the real test of the Government’s commitment to our islands and stands in stark contrast to the warm words set out in their Islands (Scotland) Act.
Government’s failure to walk their talk in the Islands Act is again shown in the way the closure of Uig Pier for six months has been agreed to under the port improvement project to ready that port for new vessel 802. This project is being led by Highland Council as the port authority, but it is funded by Scottish Government. No consideration of the impact this closure will have on our communities was made and no Island Community Impact Assessment has been undertaken to understand the impact on Uist or Harris. Instead, a pointless economic impact assessment that only considered the businesses in Uig was undertaken not the far more significant economic and social impact on the Western Isles. However late in the day we need to see a full Island Community Impact Assessment undertaken and this must establish the cost to business in the Western Isles. Once this is fully understood, Scottish Government must implement a Business Continuity Scheme, similar to that which supported businesses impacted by the building of the tram project in Edinburgh, to compensate each and every business which suffers financial loss as a result of the closure of Uig pier. Why should businesses in Edinburgh be afforded more protection than businesses in Uist? Calmac and Transport Scotland assert that such a scheme has never been used to support businesses affected by works on a ferry terminal before, but there has never been a 6-month long closure of a port to allow the harbour to be redeveloped before!
Never again can Transport Scotland and Calmac be allowed to force bad vessel replacement decisions on our communities as we have seen with their imposition of a single vessel – Loch Seaforth – on the Stornoway service when the clear stated will of the community was two ferries on the route, or their choice to continue a shared ferry for the Tarbert and Lochmaddy routes when the community had a clear preference for a dedicated ferry for each route. We are all too aware of the disastrous consequences of this latter choice, which now stands at a cost of at least £125M for the ferry, in addition to harbour costs in the order of £70M and the unprecedented closure of Uig from October. Had islanders’ voices been heard, the cost of a new ferry to operate alongside MV Hebrides would have been no more than £40Million leaving £155Million for new vessels to be provided on the routes to Lochboisdale and Castlebay, with enough left over to provide a couple of new ferries elsewhere!
Our ask on ferry services is simple. It is for a Western Isles Network made up of six large ferries with two deployed to serve Stornoway and a dedicated ferry on the routes from Tarbert, Lochmaddy, Lochboisdale and Castlebay, plus two smaller ferries to serve the Sound of Harris and Sound of Barra. Dedicated ferries will provide greater capacity and frequency in normal times and resilience will improve with the ability to cover any breakdown or dry dock maintenance within this network. This will be a step forward from current practice, where cancelling the Lochboisdale service seems to be Calmac’s go to position as soon as there is a need to cover a breakdown in operations in other areas or when Covid stretches manning on other vessels. The operations and management of this network should be based within the Western Isles and there should be an increased focus on recruiting crew locally. Only with greater local control and accountability can we expect to see the services our people deserve. This is for a long- term fix, or jam tomorrow though. In the short term we need another vessel in the fleet now to cover breakdowns and add capacity when Uig is closed. The only obvious opportunity is a charter of MV Pentalina and Government must provide funding to allow Calmac to lease and crew this ferry until 802 is in service, whenever that might be!
Uist needs our lifeline to be resilient, reliable and adequate and this should not be too much to expect! I know those of us reading Am Pàipear know that the changes I describe need to happen but how can we persuade Scottish Government that the people of these islands will not stand for this any longer? We need everyone to be in accord on what needs to happen and I am looking to my fellow Councillors, Alasdair Allan our local MSP, the list MSPs and Angus Brendan MacNeil our MP to join with me in calling out Government’s inaction, and provide the collective will for the package of measures I have described to be implemented starting with the charter of MV Pentalina.
The port staff, locally based management team and crews do a fantastic job. The current situation is not of their making. Please, always treat them with courtesy and respect .
21/05/2022
