Ferries minister's crisis solution has 'little or no merit'

The background is one of freight traffic now up a fifth, and shrinking resources as the Scottish ferry fleet is beset by breakdowns and the ferry-building programme woefully late after a series of significant delays.

Mr Dey prompted a less than enthusiastic response as he fanfared his “solution to the current shortfall in freight capacity”.

Which is: “Transport Scotland have introduced a pilot scheme that offers a revised fare structure to hauliers of time-sensitive freight who make use of weekend sailings.”

The Stewart Building Transport Group, which represents the islands’ hauliers and seafood industry, said the solution put forward by Mr Dey for firms simply to work weekends was seen as having “little or no merit” with “customers being resistant to taking deliveries over weekends and producers and hauliers being forced to incur the costs of adjusting their entire operations to a seven-day week - this at a time when labour shortages and other pressures are well documented”.

The exchange follows the Scottish Government’s announcement that it is investing £9 million in a ferry from Norway for the west coast.

The group said that, given that the minister said a broker is looking for a vessel to charter, it “questions this sole option – particularly so, now that we are aware that you were already in the process of purchasing a second-hand ship to service the west coast routes when you attended our meeting”.

The group also wrote to Mr Dey: “We would strongly urge that all options, including purchase, must be considered for the Northern Isles as well as the west coast routes, given the dire circumstances we face.”

A Transport Scotland spokesman said that “opportunities for suitable second-hand tonnage that could be added to the west coast or Northern Isles fleets” continue to be sought.

In another week dominated by unsurprising yet alarming manifestations of the detrimental impact of Brexit, warnings about the threats to future prosperity grow louder, writes business editor Ian McConnell in his Called to Account column.

He continues: “Scottish Chambers of Commerce’s president, Tim Allan, has this week spelled out some simple truths around ‘instability in the labour market and persistent skills shortages’.”

It was four years in the planning and construction during a time overshadowed by Covid-19, but this week Glasgow’s financial services sector received a boost as the 500,000sq ft Barclays campus, representing a £330 million capital investment, opened its doors, reports business correspondent Kristy Dorsey.

Shaping the energies of the future is the focus of business correspondent Mark Williamson’s weekly column, in which he examines the proposition that a ban on North Sea oil and gas developments could steepen Scotland’s energy challenges.

Lovely to chat with Mike Baxter the other day for this week's Monday Interview, currently transforming the former Peckam's in Glassford Street into Glasgow's House of Gods Hotel, alongside his brother, Ross.