Is this the week when the tide has turned for Ferguson’s shipyard, the last civilian shipyard on the Clyde?
Its 300 workers have been breathing a sigh of relief that, at last, they have won a new contract. It’s only for three of the 60 sections of the latest Type 23 frigate being built by BAE Systems along the river, but it’s a start. The hope is it will keep the yard in business until it can win a major contract, for, say, a new Caledonian MacBrayne ferry.
The saga of Ferguson’s shipyard and Cal Mac ferries has been a colourful part of Scottish politics for the last 20 years. It’s something real that people can gnash their teeth about. But it’s also totemic. It captures the loss of Scotland’s great shipbuilding tradition and the threat to Hebridean life.
Most Scots will be able to tell you that Ferguson’s is a government-owned yard that has made a shocking mess of building two large ferries, the Glen Sannox and the Glen Rosa. They are four times over budget and seven years late. In fact the Glen Rosa is still not in service, leaving the people on the Island of Arran depending on ancient ferries which are always breaking down.
Those of a more generous spirit will acknowledge that there are mitigating circumstances. The ferries are an advanced design, built to run on liquefied gas as well as diesel. Changes were being constantly made to the design. The yard itself went out of business and had to be nationalised. No one seemed to be in charge – not Cal Mac or its procurement agent CMAL, or the government’s transport agency Transport Scotland, or the Scottish government. Ministers, when they did pay attention, glossed over problems and over-promised solutions.
So we have beached ourselves in an uncomfortable position. Most of the Cal Mac fleet of 36 boats are ancient – 25 to 40 years old, starved a funds because of low fares and government under-funding. There’s been under-funding too at Ferguson’s, so its technology cannot compete with smart shipbuilders abroad. It’s lost contracts for four medium sized ferries to a yard in Turkey and another contract for seven small ferries to Poland.
This week the parliament’s audit committee warned that the government’s investment of £14m in Ferguson’s is not enough to modernise the yard. A figure of £25m was mentioned. Already the government has spent £500m since it nationalised Ferguson’s in 2019.
The 300 workers wonder why The Scottish Government keeps awarding ferry contracts abroad. Surely the patriotic thing to do is to build ships for a state-owned company at home, as happens with defence contracts. Alas, there is a piece of UK competition law, the Subsidy Control Act, which insists there has to be an open competition for government contracts. Ministers also have a duty to get value for money and if foreign yards pay their workers less, their bids will be lower. And, with Ferguson’s record of slow delivery, there would be further outcry from islanders if their new ferries were delayed. Decisions are not straightforward.
Then the fate of Ferguson’s is only part of the ferries story. Two other chapters were briefly exposed this week. The good old Caledonian Isles (32) has been out of action for 18 months, first undergoing repairs at Cammell Laird shipyard in Birkenhead and then with subsequent problems with its hull and gearbox and now its propellers. All of which has cost £11 million, a quarter of Cal Mac’s total maintenance budget.
Then there is the chapter on Ardrossan habour, the mainland crossing point to the Isle of Arran. Or at least it was. It turns out that the two new ferries for Arran, the Glen Sannox and Glen Rosa, are too big for Ardrossan harbour. They have to sail from Troon further up the coast and without a railway connection. The reason why the harbour has not been developed as originally planned in 2018 is frustratingly unclear. MSPs on the transport committee were told that negotiations with the private owner were “in the middle of nowhere.”
“Here’s a pretty kettle of fish!” The whole Cal Mac/Ferguson’s operetta could easily be given the Gilbert and Sullivan treatment. But this farce has its serious side – the cost to the taxpayer, the cost to the islanders without good ferry services, and the loss of the public sector’s credibility. There’s been chronic lack of co-ordination on all fronts. The opposition parties have not been slow to blame the SNP government. And they are right to do so, ministers have not handled things well, interfering when they shouldn’t, not interfering when they should and over-promising in an attempt to please.
All of this is not unusual and not unique to Scotland. How many large projects can you name that have been completed on time, on budget and without complication?
So here’s my G&S chorus:
“In every human undertaking
There’s an element of muddle
But we never stop creating
Because it’s usually worth the trouble.”
