Transport secretary Fiona Hyslop has been told that her decision to re-appoint the Danish chair and other absentee directors  of Caledonian MacBrayne has caused “real anger” in the islands.

The hard-hitting message came in a letter jointly signed by Uisdean Robertson, chair of the Western Isles Council’s transportation committee, and Angus Campbell, former council leader and now chair of CalMac’s Ferries Community Board.

Their letter states that the re-appointments of Erik Østergaard and two other directors “caused real anger as it follows so soon after the media reports exposing how little knowledge of the Western Isles any of those reappointed possess”.

This refers to a Freedom of Information request which revealed shortly before the reappointments that Østergaard has been in the islands once since being installed as chair of CalMac while the other two reappointed by Hyslop, Tim Ingram and Grant Macrae, have never visited a CalMac port since being appointed in 2021.

The intervention by two leading island transport figures coincides with a Holyrood committee’s decision not to pursue a petition calling for reform of quango appointments relating to lifeline island services, after three years and seven months of stonewalling by the Scottish Government.

In their letter, Messrs Robertson and Campbell call for a “reset in how these appointments are made … including criteria by which Board Members are selected”. These should be “based on the nature of the services being delivered and how Board Members can add value and offer a check and balance in the delivery of services.

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“What we see is a concerning level of appointment of people who have served time on other public bodies having become familiar with the areas typically asked about in public body appointments”.

The letter concludes: “We will be very interested to see the outcome of the recent CMAL board appointment process and urge you to consider how the appointment of any non islanders will be received in your island communities”.

Meanwhile, Ms Hyslop has claimed that quango appointees are required to  “to demonstrate a knowledge and understanding of how lifeline services affect our island communities.”

The Petitions and Public Participation Committee of the Scottish Parliament agreed to take no further action on a petition submitted in March 2021 on behalf of the Uist Economic Task Force.

The petition called for “local knowledge (to) be viewed as an essential skill for the Boards of organisations accountable to the Scottish Government” which provide lifeline services to the islands. It also called for representation through island authorities.

After protracted exchanges with civil servants, the committee decided to draw a line.  Its convener, Jackson Carlaw MSP, said: “We have pursued the aims of the petition quite well” and there was  “nothing precluding” its aims if the Scottish Government chose to implement them. 

Mr Carlaw quoted a letter from Ms Hyslop which claimed that “although the skills matrix will vary depending on the specific board vacancy, on every occasion, applicants are asked ‘to demonstrate a knowledge and understanding of how lifeline services affect our island communities’.”