The boss of CalMac has warned Uist residents will face a difficult winter – but promises better services to come.
At a local meeting, managing director Robbie Drummond admitted challenges as Uig harbour closes.
He said the work will be “painful for everyone” and also talked about CalMac’s ageing fleet.
He warned there are no spare vessels.
‘Total frustration’
Locals at the meeting voiced their concerns.
John Daniel Peteranna’s renewable energy company Energee is based in South Uist, but has customers across the across the Hebrides and as far away as Orkney.
Like many other business owners in the Western Isles, he “heavily” relies on CalMac ferries to reach his customers.
And, also like many other business owners, he’s seen the reliability of these services decline dramatically in recent years.
He says that he is “having to debate whether I can keep my business based in Uist”.
“It’s just got to the point of total frustration.”
He is just one of the members of the Lochboisdale Ferry Users Group, a committee set up to be a voice for the Uist community in the midst of ferry chaos.
In a report published earlier this month, it was estimated that Uist businesses lost out on £648,000 due to the May Lochboisdale-Mallaig ferry closure.
That was a two-week closure. It’s no surprise, then, that the impact of the upcoming six-month closure of Uig harbour is a major cause for concern for Western Isles locals.
Earlier this month, they met CalMac’s managing director, Robbie Drummond, to discuss the closure and the issues it will cause for the community.
During the meeting, Mr Drummond says that the resilience of CalMac ferries was the main point of discussion.
‘No spare vessels’
“We accept that the service has been challenged over the past six months.”
He says that this is due to a number of factors outside of CalMac’s control.
They have “no spare vessels” in their fleet, of which “over a third are past their life expectancy”.
This means they are more likely to need repairs – which “global supply chain issues”, Mr Drummond says, have made more challenging than ever.
Add in “weather changes” including “much deeper storms”, and it looks like there will be even more disruption to come.
Especially since, in the short term, Mr Drummond says the issues are “actually getting worse”.
‘Painful for everyone’
“The vessels are only going to be older. We’re going to face more resilience issues.”
His predictions came true on Monday, when an issue with the MV Hebrides’ CO2 firefighting system led to it being the latest of the fleet to be pulled from service.
It mirrors the MV Lord of the Isles’ costly repairs in May, which were also to fix a faulty fire safety system. In such old vessels, break downs like these seem inevitable.
“The next two years,” Mr Drummond warned, “are going to be challenging.”
But he stressed that there were better days to come.
The work on Uig harbour will be “painful for everyone”, but there will be “a much better service once there is a new facility there.”
He said: “I sought to reassure them that we’re doing everything we can to mitigate what’s going to be a difficult winter.”
‘We’ve got all the culture you could want’
However, locals fear that, by the time the improvements are implemented, the Western Isles will have lost a once-in-a-lifetime chance to grow the community.
Mr Peteranna says that, since the response to Covid gave people the option to work from home, many families realised the island life could be for them.
“It’s a nice place to live. We’ve got all the culture and all the craic you could want,” he said.
New families mean a new lease of life for the islands – but Mr Peteranna says that, without reliable ferries, people won’t want to stay.
There are no doubt many more discussions between CalMac and the Ferry Users Group to come.
‘We’re not on different sides of the table’
But Mr Drummond says that CalMac and the islanders ultimately all want the same thing – an up-to-date ferry service.
“We’re not on different sides of the table.”
Mr Drummond says that it can be “frustrating” to hear statements about how CalMac “doesn’t care”.
“That could not be further from the truth,” he says.
“Everyone at CalMac is passionate about the service. We want it to be the absolute best it can be.”
‘Ageing fleet’
He pointed out that “many of [CalMac’s] staff are based in the community”.
Ultimately, he says, many of the changes local people want are out of CalMac’s control.
For instance, the Ferry Users Group would like to see CalMac have a system in place to prioritise local people’s travel needs over tourist trips.
But CalMac says that their government contract holds them to a “first come, first served” system.
The maintenance issues of the “ageing fleet” are also out of CalMac’s hands, the company says, as they wait for the new government-contracted vessels to be finished.
The Scottish Government’s handling of the new builds, such as the still-unfinished Glen Sannox, has been described as a “fiasco”.
When asked if CalMac were satisfied with Transport Scotland’s handling of ferries to the Western Isles, Mr Drummond said that CalMac has been “making the case very strongly” for “the need for a long-term strategy and investment plan”.
He also said that the continued progress on four new ships and “an investment plan for seven smaller vessels” is “very welcome”.
“But,” he says, “we also need to see that longer term strategy to renew the whole fleet.”
A Transport Scotland spokesperson said that Transport Minister Jenny Gilruth is “live to the communities’ concerns in relation to the planned Uig harbour closure”.
She is in talks with MSP Alasdair Allan, as well as CalMac’s Ferries Community Board.
“Ministers recognise that having confidence in ferry services can impact upon people’s decision on whether to live and work on the islands, and impacts upon the sustainability of the island communities themselves.”
However, local people say they feel that Holyrood isn’t listening.
“We thankfully have the support of our local MSP, Alasdair Allan,” said Mr Peteranna.
‘We all think it’s a poor service’
But, when it comes to the Transport Minister’s communication with the group, Mr Peteranna noted wryly that “for there to be communication, you have to have somebody answer you from the other side.”
Now, islanders from across Scotland are joining forces in the hopes of being heard.
Mr Peteranna says he’s in touch with similar committees in Harris, Mull, and Islay.
“I’m trying to create something jointly,” he said.
“Because we all think it’s poor service, for the money that’s been spent on it.”
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