Nicola Sturgeon Michael Matheson

Graeme Day Mairi Gougeon

Kate Forbes Alasdair Allan
Uisdean Robertson Rhoda Grant
Arianne Burgess Donald Cameron

20th May 2021

First Minister, Ministers, MSPs & Councillor,

It is well recognised that lifeline ferry services providing critical support to communities living in the Outer
Hebrides and elsewhere are woefully inadequate. The long delay getting new ferries built in the Ferguson
Marine shipyard has significantly exacerbated the situation. Urgent action is required to expedite the provision
of replacement ferries which will, in the medium-term, provide both capacity and reliability of service. North
Uist Community Council hereby request, on behalf of the entire community, that every effort is made by
Transport Scotland and Scottish Ministers to resolve this on-going failure, which is an increasing detriment to
our community.

The new ferries necessary to achieve a reliable, cost-effective service in the medium term are not going to be
built or bought overnight, however there are operational decisions active today that do not make use of all the
capacity that is currently available. At a time when it is extremely difficult to get vehicle bookings for the weeks
ahead (current examples at this link), the MV Hebrides, which serves the Uig-Lochmaddy-Tarbert routes, is
currently operating without using its mezzanine car deck. This amounts to a lost carrying capacity on the
triangle route of ~700 cars per week. CalMac maintains that this restriction is necessary due to the additional
time required to comply with COVID-19 cleaning requirements between each passage. It is therefore not
possible, with the available staffing levels, to load and unload the mezzanine in time for the next passage.

We understand from CalMac that Transport Scotland have refused outright to consider any additional resource
provision that would facilitate full utilisation of the mezzanine deck whilst maintaining the current frequency of
passages. Specifically, providing extra crew could resolve this problem in the short term. It is within the
capacity of Transport Scotland & Scottish Ministers to make provision to bring the mezzanine deck back into
operation and maximise the car-carrying capacity. Whether that means timetable changes or releasing funding
to hire and train more crew, whatever it takes - it needs to happen; not in months, not in weeks, but right now.
It is particularly concerning that during the ongoing major disruption of ferries due to unreliability and delays in
procurement of ferries that are fit-for-purpose, that the remaining vessels are not being used to capacity. Even
utilising the mezzanine deck on the last crossing of the day; when the vessel remains in port until the
following morning (allowing time for COVID-19 cleaning duties) would provide additional capacity for 120 cars
per week.

The lack of available vehicle space is having a significant detrimental impact on our businesses and on our
families. We are appealing directly to you as a newly elected Scottish government to restore that capacity
without delay.

We would welcome the opportunity to discuss the challenges and to get feedback about the actions you take
and progress you are making. Finally, we will make this open letter and your responses to it publicly available
for the people of North Uist to read.

Yours sincerely,

JOAN FERGUSON Chair (acting)

on behalf of North Uist Community Council