Cllr Manford’s letter on ferries

Michael Matheson MSP
Cabinet Secretary for Transport, Infrastructure & Connectivity.


Dear Cabinet Secretary,


I write to protest on behalf of the community of Barra and Vatersay about the quality of ferry service imposed on this community during redeployment it’s regular service vessel.

While there is the larger overarching enduring issue of the aging fleet with severely limited core relief options - to which I shall return later; my primary cause for protest is the service provision imposed on this community over the weekend of 19th 20th October.

I refer to ferry arrangements for the annual Gaidhlig National MOD, this year held in Glasgow and to which an increasing number of islanders, largely children participate in events having trained and practiced over the previous year.

Due to the previous experiences of passengers eg. having to use external seating on the open sea in late October due to insufficient internal seating, we asked that if no alternative existed to MV Isle of Arran, this vessel’s deployment be held off for 2 days to allow the unusually large number of passengers to return home.

When this entirely reasonable request was rejected, such was passenger previous experience, that a considerable number of people felt they had no alternative but make alternative arrangements which impacted significantly on their ability to participate in the national Gaidhlig event.  This ranged from returning early, to cancelled attendance, causing considerable upset and cost.

While there are significant matters of concern related to the capacity and resilience of the ferry fleet that must be for further correspondence. Meantime an understanding or explanation for the disregard shown to this community and it’s very modest request requires to be addressed as a priority.

Yours sincerely,  Donald Manford.