Efforts by Mull and Iona Ferry Committee (MIFC) to investigate the benefits of a community-controlled service have been thwarted by the Scottish Government, it has been claimed.
The voluntary users’ group had commissioned a series of studies into the idea, that could have seen a community enterprise take over the operation of their main ferry service between Craignure on Mull and Oban.
Ferry expert and author Roy Pedersen had helped the group by scoping out a new ferry service for Mull that could have doubled capacity, lengthened the operating day, and increased frequency dramatically – and all while reducing operating costs on the route by 30 per cent.
But in order for a such a venture to be possible, the Scottish Government would need an open mind to the idea of ‘unbundling’ the CalMac network, says MIFC.
That would mean putting the services out to tender not as one single whole-network contract, but as a series of smaller bundles.
MIFC said it had hoped to have a "grown-up discussion" about it with the Scottish Government but instead was twice refused meetings.
"This is a government that champions the islands, and has been ground-breaking with the Islands Act and
encouragement of community empowerment. A community ferry company is the very embodiment of those excellent policy aspirations – yet the Transport Minister Fiona Hyslop refuses to even discuss it.
"The Scottish Government has been happy to invite in the likes of Hampshire-based corporate giant Serco to run Hebridean ferry services, but won’t even talk to islanders about more home-grown options," said MIFC chairperson Joe Reade.
This week, the government’s consultation closes on the plan to make a direct award of the Clyde Hebrides Ferry Service contract to David MacBrayne Ltd.
"Fiona Hyslop has said that although the contract will remain in the hands of CalMac managers in Gourock, but under no circumstances will that just mean business as usual.
"The government promises a more flexible, island-centric approach to delivering ferry services. We remain to be convinced,” added Mr Reade.
A Transport Scotland spokesperson said: “Scottish Ministers have been clear for some time now that we do not favour splitting up the network or privatising any of the Clyde and Hebrides Ferry Services routes and this was a position supported by the cross-party Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee in their own Ferry Report.
“We share the desires of island communities for sustainable and effective ferry services and look forward to continuing our constructive engagement with them on future services and vessel replacements. The then Minister for Transport visited Mull and met with Mull and Iona Ferry Committee in person last summer. There have been no discussions with SERCO for at least 10 years about the Hebrides service.”
MIFC have pointed to the success of Norway as a model for what they aspire to. There, a multitude of ferry operating companies compete to operate public ferry services on a route-by-route basis. They say the benefits are difficult to deny – Norway has the world’s most comprehensive, efficient, and green ferry network, and the cornerstone to that is route-by-route tendering.
If the MIFC plans had been allowed to develop, the expectation was that the community company would have procured its own vessels, rather than use those provided by the state fleet-owner, CMAL.
Roy Pederson’s advice to MIFC was that any community ferry company should choose simple, efficient, light and productive medium-speed catamarans.
In a web post published on the Ferry Committee’s website, MIFC claim that a comparison between a new-build Norwegian ferry, and the four new CMAL/CalMac ships currently under construction in Turkey, demonstrates the benefits of route-by-route tendering.
MIFC claims the Norwegian vessel is not only 40 per cent cheaper than the CalMac ships, but it can operate with almost one third of the crew, for 50 per cent longer each day.
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