Ferries scandal Scotland: Islanders fear South Uist ferry cancellations will continue until Scottish Government fixes ongoing issues

Island hit with month-long cancellations as business owners slam Scottish Government over ferry fiasco.

Business owners on South Uist say they will continue to suffer for years to come until the Scottish Government sorts out the ferry network.

Those on the island are growing increasingly angry after the ferry service between Mallaig on the mainland and Lochboisdale was cancelled for almost the whole month of June. Now islanders say they fear this will happen again and again until the issues plaguing CalMac Ferries are fixed.

CalMac decided to redeploy the MV Lord of the Isles, which serves this route and Mallaig to Armadale on the Isle of Skye, to the Islay route instead. This is because the MV Finlaggan, which normally works the Islay route, had to go into dry dock for an overdue service.

Hundreds of people then staged an angry protest in response to this decision at the start of the month on the pier. The Scotsman spoke to Calum MacAulay, who runs Lochboisdale Hotel, only metres from the ferry terminal.

He estimates he will have had 100 bookings cancelled by the end of the month because of the disruption.

Mr MacAulay said: “Take April this year – our room occupancy rate was at 18 per cent, but in April 2019 it was over 50 per cent, so there is a massive difference. We are getting cancellations all the time.”

But he fears this disastrous level of disruption will keep happening because of the unreliability of Scotland’s ageing ferry fleet.

Mr MacAulay said: “We are going to keep facing this because the two ships being built on the Clyde are for Arran, so they are no use to us, and the ferries coming from Turkey won’t come until about 2025.

“So everything that has gone wrong this year. We will face again next year because CalMac doesn’t have a suitable fleet.”

The South Uist ferry is due to be back in service soon, but Mr MacAulay fears it will be pulled again if there is a breakdown.

He said: “We will be number one to lose our ferry if there are any breakdowns in July, August or September. So we are not out of the dark by a long shot.”

These fears are echoed by Christina Morrison, who owns Croft and Cuan takeaway on the pier and is one of the founding members of the Ferry Impact Group.

She said: “We have been making a bit of an uproar around the recent disruption, but this has been an issue for years. Our ferry is always the one that gets pulled to go and help other islanders.

“This is historical and it has pushed us to the edge – it is affecting our economy horribly and we have not been able to bounce back from Covid. It is cancellation after cancellation, and not due to the weather like we are used to in the winter, it is due to mismanagement.”

Ms Morrison said her business relies on footfall from the ferry, as 60 per cent of her income during the summer season is from visitors. She said: “South Uist has a reputation for being tolerable, patient and flexible and they have taken advantage of that good nature for years.

“We are in crisis, people are closing their businesses and leaving the island. This has been going on longer than a month because we have only had timetabled sailings for six days – the rest of the entire year has been an alternative timetable and we cannot be expected to survive like this.”

Transport Scotland says it is aware of the issues the communities on South Uist are facing. The agency said it had told CalMac it must keep the disruption to an “absolute minimum”.

A spokesman said: “The Government has invested more than £2 billion in our ferry services since 2007 and we have outlined plans to invest around £700 million in a five-year plan to improve ferry infrastructure.

“Since May 2021, we have bought and deployed an additional vessel in MV Loch Frisa, chartered the MV Arrow and MV Alfred, commissioned two new vessels for Islay, progressed investment in essential harbour infrastructure, and now we are delivering a further two new Islay-class vessels.”

Earlier this month the Scottish Conservatives told First Minister Humza Yousaf his Government should give businesses on the island compensation for the loss of income.

Mr MacAulay said he believed this is because the islands are not a priority to those 220 miles away in Holyrood. He said: “We really need a survival fund now because with the scale of disruption we are in survival mode.

“An interesting comparison is when the Mackintosh School of Art burned down in Glasgow. That couldn’t be blamed on the Government, but they very, very quickly put in a £5m compensation fund for the businesses put out by it. Yet we are facing something that is a direct result of government mismanagement and they don’t think we should get the same.”

Ms Morrison added: “The Government has put us into crisis mode. We need support from them to see us through to next year. But this is a political game now, it is insulting.”

A spokesman for the Government said it was continuing to consider what support it could offer. They added: “Money that is deducted from CalMac in terms of penalties and fines is reinvested back into the network.

“This investment supports resilience and helps reduce future disruption – for example, through the MV Alfred, which is currently providing resilience on the Arran route at a cost of £9m, and is funded in part by those deductions.

“That ferry is providing resilience in the fleet, and we understand this is exactly what islanders want most of all.”

Wellbeing economy secretary Neil Gray is due to give evidence on the two ferries being built at Ferguson Marine shipyard at Holyrood today.