Ferry failures

The recent announcement by the Strathclyde Partnership for Transport that the Renfrew/Yoker ferry service (your report, 23 January) is to be axed came as no big surprise to anyone from Renfrew or Yoker, but it is shocking nonetheless given the lack of any alternative suggestion or effort to look for a less fatal solution.

It is changed times for Renfrew and Yoker. New housing development on both sides of the river, the Braehead shopping and leisure facilities on the Renfrew side and Bae Systems on either side of the river at Govan and Scotstoun building two of the largest ships ever manufactured in the UK should probably point at the SPT having missed a great opportunity to promote and retain this service.

By not looking at alternatives to axing the ferry service completely, the SPT have failed to fulfil one of the major objectives of the Clyde Waterfront strategic partnership between the Scottish Government, Scottish Enterprise, Glasgow City, Renfrewshire and West Dunbartonshire Councils to bring the river and its use back into the heart of the life of the riverside communities.

Why cut ferry services that have existed for 500 years through plagues, wars and economic and social turmoil just to axe it now when the River Clyde is supposedly being re-energised? If the SPT can't see the future possibilities for transport links along the river and help to create imaginative solutions, then they should be replaced with an organisation that can.

BRIAN WATTERS

Third Avenue

Renfrew