“Diversity” beats island knowledge in CMAL board farce

​He told the Gazette: “I was surprised even to get an interview and did a lot of preparatory work but it was a totally surreal experience”. With the chair of CMAL, Edinburgh lawyer Morag McNeill, leading the questioning, he was “grilled about diversity. They didn’t really seem interested in anything else”.

The appointments of Mark Tarry, a Yorkshire based railway professional, and Stuart Cresswell, who has spent his working life with Associated British Ports, were confirmed by the Cabinet Secretary, Fiona Hyslop, who again ignored calls for island representation.

Uisdean Robertson told the Gazette on Wednesday: “This is so, so disappointing to be ignored once again after everything that has been said and everything that has happened. Absolutely nothing has changed. This cannot go on”.

The islander who was “grilled about diversity” explained: “I said that my business employs more women than men and that the only criterion is ability to do the job. What else was there to say? But that clearly wasn’t the answer they were looking for.

“I was asked absolutely nothing about how CMAL impacts upon the islands or how I could contribute to a better understanding of places it is supposed to serve. They had not the slightest interest in any of that. The whole process was geared to something entirely different. They were going through the motions”.

The panel which interviewed the short-listed candidates was made up of Mrs McNeill, a Transport Scotland civil servant named Andy Robinson and Jayam Dalal, who is described as a Public Appointments Adviser to the Scottish Government’s Ethical Standards Commissioner.

According to her LinkedIn profile, Ms Dalal has occupied this role for more than nine years and describes herself as “a strategic and creative thinker with a strong commitment to equality and diversity”.

It is known for certain that on this occasion several islanders applied for the two positions and at least one other was interviewed. Once again, however, the board appointments went to individuals with no island connections or experience.

Mr Tarry, who formerly worked for Network Rail, now advertises himself as a “Non-executive director and senior railway consultant”. In June, he was appointed to the board of another Scottish Government quango, the Scottish Public Pensions Agency.

In a recent letter to Ms Hyslop, Mr Robertson and ferries community board chair, Angus Campbell, told of “real anger” over the re-appointment of two CalMac directors who have never visited a CalMac port, as well Copenhagen-based absentee, Erik Østergaard.

They said: “We will be very interested to see the outcome of the recent CMAL Board appointment process and urge you to consider how the appointment of any non-islanders will be received in your island communities”.

Announcement of the latest snubs to island opinion by Ms Hyslop was then delayed to the last moment with the appointments taking effect from November 1st.

Mr Tarry was appointed Supply Chain Operations director of Network Rail in March 2022 but appears to have left that post within a year and now lists himself as a director with a Sheffield-based company called Innorail. There is no indication of any previous connection to ferries or islands.

The appointment of Mr Cresswell will be of particular interest in Ardrossan and Arran. He has worked for Associated British Ports for 42 years and for 21 of these until last year, he was port manager for Troon, which has long sought to oust Ardrossan as the permanent port for the Arran service and investment decisions have repeatedly been delayed by the Scottish Government.

CMAL chair, Mrs McNeill, was the deputy to Erik Østergaard when he chaired it between 2014 and 2021 – the period during which the Ferguson shipyard scandal unfolded. It is known that CMAL were privately critical of the decision to award the doomed two ferry order to the yard.

However, by appointing Østergaard as chairman of CalMac and then leveraging McNeill into the same role at CMAL, the Scottish Government effectively closed down any risk of them revealing inconvenient truths about the Ferguson contract.