Ferries scandal Scotland: Islands demand help from Scottish minister amid claims failing ferries have cost businesses £1.5m

Ferry operator CalMac has recently been forced to cancel sailings to the island of South Uist for most of June, as businesses estimate they have lost out on £1.5 million

Islanders have written to new transport minister Fiona Hyslop demanding cash help from the Scottish Government as a survey claimed CalMac's "failing ferry service" had cost businesses on just two islands almost £1.5 million.

In the midst of what was described as an "intense crisis for the Hebridean ferry system", Joe Reade wrote to the newly appointed transport minister on behalf of the Iona Community Council, Mull Community Council, the Mull and Iona Ferry Committee, along with other organisations on the two islands.

It comes as state-owned CalMac's ageing fleet comes under pressure, with the ferry operator having recently been forced to cancel sailings to the island of South Uist for most of this month.

Businesses on islands, including the Isle of Mull, have spoken out on the impact of ferry failings. Picture: Getty Images

Meanwhile, it waits delivery of two new ferries being constructed at the Ferguson Marine yard in Port Glasgow, which are years late and massively overbudget.

Mr Reade, however, claimed these vessels were "over-complex and super-sized", branding them "lavish behemoths".

Hitting out at the Scottish Government, he told Ms Hyslop: "Over decades, increasing demand has been met by making our ferries bigger, rather than adding to their numbers.

"So we have a small fleet of overly-large, elderly cruise-ferries. Each one more expensive than the last, each one requiring tens of millions to be spent on pier lengthening and dredging. The result is an inflexible, unreliable fleet where the 'strategy' is to remove ferries from one route in order to fix problems on another."

As a result he said islanders were looking to the Scottish Government for financial aid, not CalMac, saying the ferry firm was "merely the operator of vessels given to it".

In his letter to the transport minister, Mr Reade insisted: "The vast majority of our difficulties are the result of government action and inaction, not operational mistakes by CalMac. It is government policy that has let us down, by failing to renew the CalMac fleet quickly enough."

Mr Reade told Ms Hyslop a survey of businesses on Mull and Iona found firms had "cumulatively been hit with increased costs totalling more than £400,000" as a "direct consequence of our failing ferry service".

Mr Reade added that on top of that businesses on the two islands had lost sales worth £1.05m.

He told Ms Hyslop: "Note that not every business was able to respond to the survey, so these figures understate the full magnitude of the losses.

"For an island group with a little over 3,000 residents, economic damage totalling nearly £1.5m in a matter of months cannot be absorbed."

In the survey done on the islands, one business said: "As a direct consequence of CalMac I have lost 30 per cent of my trade, which mainland-based competitors have now acquired."

A Transport Scotland spokesperson said the body recognised the "impact that delays and disruption have regrettably had on our island communities and are fully committed to investing in our ferry services".

They stated: "There have been ongoing technical issues with vessels resulting in delays to the annual overhaul programme and cancellation of sailings."