Swinney told of despair over CalMac’s crippled fleet

The implications of Caledonian MacBrayne being required to operate a crippled fleet have caused renewed despair in South Uist and Barra with fears about how long the disruption will continue.

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There has been a renewed call from Torcui Crichton MP to suspend the ten per cent fares and freight rise, due to take effect from the end of this month, after Transport Secretary Fiona Hyslop over-ruled CalMac request for an increase in line with inflation.
The South Uist Business Impact Group has called for “resilience grant funding” in the most affected postcodes, pointing out that “it was done during Covid and could easily be done again”.
Uisdean Robertson, chair of Comhairle nan Eilean Siar’s transportation committee, has warned that “nothing will change” until governance of ferry services is in the hands of people who have “lived experience of the impact their decisions have on island communities”.

In a letter to First Minister, John Swinney, South Uist Business Impact Group says it is “appalled that yet again South Uist has been targeted for the greatest reduction in, and disruption to, ferry services at the hands of Scottish Government owned CalMac”.

On behalf of the group, John Daniel Peteranna says they and and other community organisations were invited to provide feedback on options “given the dire state of the fleet and insufficient vessels being available”. They received no response and “not one of our suggestions has been acted upon”.

Mr Peteranna continued: “We are now looking at a significant reduction in service going into the busy tourist season, a vital time for the island’s economy, with a ship running just once a day to a port 86 miles from our usual mainland port, capable of carrying just 45 passengers.

“And this after a winter which has seen a similar reduction in service for the past several months. In 2022 when South Uist lost its service completely for 17 days an independent economic assessment demonstrated that the island lost hundreds of thousands of pounds as a direct result of the ferry being cancelled, amounting to an average of £4,000 per business.

“Uist businesses are again looking at similar if not greater losses with the limited ferry service being offered. If we were allowed to flourish, we would earn taxable revenue that would offset much of the investment required. Of equal value is the reputational damage being done to Uist with long term effects on both business investment and tourism”

Mr Peteranna points out: “On 27th February we met with CalMac’s Outer Hebrides Area Manager. Not only is he based in Greenock, far removed from the lived experience of island communities, but so poor are the ferry services that he flew to the island with Loganair in order to meet us”.

He concluded with an invitation to Mr Swinney to visit South Uist “to help you fully understand” the impact of “the continuing ferry fiasco”.