The next item of business is a members’ business debate on motion S6M-12723, in the name of Katy Clark, on Ardrossan harbour. The debate will be concluded without any question being put.
Motion debated,
That the Parliament understands that it has been seven years since the Scottish Government decided to retain Ardrossan as the service’s mainland port for the Arran service, citing connectivity, reliability, overall operational cost to the public purse and socio-economic considerations; further understands that it has been six years since Transport Scotland approved proposals to redevelop the harbour, which it understands includes major works necessary to run the MV Glen Sannox and MV Glen Rosa vessels from the port; understands that a refreshed business case to redevelop the harbour is yet to be finalised; considers that the daily Ardrossan-Brodick service is critical to the economic development of both Ardrossan and the Isle of Arran, and that this is the quickest, shortest route, with supporting infrastructure already in place, and notes the belief that the Scottish Government must provide a clear commitment that Ardrossan will be retained as the mainland port to serve Arran in the long term.
12:48
I am grateful to all the members who signed the motion to enable the debate to take place.
Ardrossan has been the main ferry port for services to Arran for 190 years, because the Ardrossan to Brodick route is the shortest, quickest and most convenient way to get to and from Arran for most people. Infrastructure has been built around the port at Ardrossan, including transport infrastructure such as railway links, and the town’s economy is heavily dependent on the ferry route.
Eight years ago next month, MSPs and local councillors from various political parties joined members of the public and businesses to demonstrate fierce backing for retaining the Ardrossan to Brodick ferry route. The keep it A to B campaign was launched in response to the announcement by Humza Yousaf, then the Minister for Transport and the Islands, that there would be a wide-ranging feasibility study to examine the future of the Arran route, following a bid to remove the service from Ardrossan and give it to Troon. The study looked at the options under four broad pillars: connectivity, reliability, overall operational cost and socioeconomic considerations. After all the evidence was considered, the decision was taken to retain Ardrossan as the main land port for the Arran ferry service, as that was clearly the best option.
Fast forward to now, eight years after the launch of the keep it A to B campaign, and local residents, businesses and groups in Arran and Ardrossan still do not have any certainty that their lifeline ferry service will continue from Ardrossan harbour, due to the disastrous failure to commence the work at Ardrossan.
The two new ferries, the MV Glen Sannox and the MV Glen Rosa, should have come into service in 2018 and 2019. Despite both ferries being delayed for more than five years, the harbour work has not started and there has been no tender process to ascertain costs. The Scottish Government decided to commission the Glen Sannox and the Glen Rosa with a design that required the reconfiguration and upgrading of Ardrossan harbour to enable the vessels to berth. It knew that the infrastructure in terms of ports and fuel was not in place. The commissioning decision meant that decisions had to be made about the future of the port. The port is owned by Peel Ports, and it was obvious to those with experience of that owner that there might be problems with coming to a decision that it would agree with. Now, despite the ferries being more than five years late, no work has started at Ardrossan.
The delay of the two ferries has already cost the local economy millions of pounds on the island of Arran, which is heavily dependent on tourism. In Ardrossan, which has some of the most beautiful beaches and views along our coast, we suffer from some of the worst deprivation in North Ayrshire, and moving the ferry service would surely tear the heart out of the town.
The Glen Sannox started berthing trials at Brodick this week, and I hope that a service from there will start later this year, but it will not be going to Ardrossan—it has been rerouted to Troon—and there is real concern that the ferry service will never come back to Ardrossan.
Last night, more than 340 people—residents, those in businesses and other supporters—met in the Ardrossan civic centre for the inaugural meeting to launch the save Ardrossan harbour campaign. Many more were unable to get into the room. It feels like groundhog day. Eight years on from the keep it A to B campaign and eight years on from the argument being won on Ardrossan, local people still cannot get a cast-iron commitment from the Scottish Government that the Arran ferry service will keep operating out of Ardrossan in the future.
It has also been six years since Transport Scotland approved proposals to redevelop Ardrossan harbour. Constituents rightly feel angry and frustrated. You could not make this up. We have had enough time wasting and enough excuses. I have no doubt that the work would have been completed by now if the port had been brought into public ownership, which is why Labour has been calling for that to happen for a number of years. The future of Ardrossan as a ferry port, with integrated ScotRail train services, must be preserved. We must get that commitment from the Scottish Government.
Will Katy Clark take an intervention?
I am glad to take an intervention from the local member.
Since harbour privatisation in 1992, Labour has controlled North Ayrshire Council for 26 years and Westminster for 13 years. It was in control at the Scottish Parliament for eight years, and the member was the local MP for a decade. Why is the port still in private hands? Will the United Kingdom Labour Government set aside the Subsidy Control Act 2022 to enable investment to be made in Ardrossan harbour?
As the member is well aware, this is a devolved matter. As he also knows, the Labour group in North Ayrshire Council asked for a number of years to be allowed to take the port into municipal ownership because of the horrific impact on the local economy of the delay to the redevelopment of Ardrossan harbour.
The lack of investment in Ardrossan harbour and in our ageing ferry fleet is a national emergency. It has been a national embarrassment for the Scottish Government, and it has been a disaster for businesses and residents in Ardrossan and on Arran.
My constituents in Ardrossan and Arran deserve an apology. They deserve a Scottish Government commitment to provide an adequate support package to cover the cost of the delays. They deserve a reliable ferry service on the fastest route—one that they can count on. Most of all, they deserve a cast-iron commitment from the Scottish Government that Ardrossan is the preferred route for the Arran service and a guarantee that the much-needed works to the harbour will get under way as soon as possible. I sincerely hope that the minister can give my constituents that commitment and guarantee today.
12:56
I congratulate Ms Clark on securing this important debate on the Ardrossan harbour redevelopment project. Last night, in the Ardrossan civic centre, I was the only MSP to participate in a packed public meeting that was called by the save Ardrossan harbour group, which is made up of local residents. They encapsulated the frustration and strength of feeling about the seemingly never-ending saga of the harbour’s redevelopment. I was the 267th person to arrive and, soon after, the doors had to be closed, with many people left outside. Emotions ran high as local businesspeople spoke passionately about the harbour’s vital importance to the town and North Ayrshire. Ardrossan harbour is not just a port that has served Arran for 190 years but a key pillar of the town’s economy.
Prior to the pandemic, the Scottish Government’s introduction of the road equivalent tariff and the huge increase in traffic that followed the massive reduction in fares, which are still barely half of what they were when the SNP came into office, meant that 850,000 passengers travelled to Brodick annually, supporting 165 jobs. In 2017, when redevelopment was first mooted, with Troon as a potential alternative port, the entire Ardrossan community, backed by parties across North Ayrshire Council, fought a magnificent and successful campaign to retain the ferry service permanently at Ardrossan.
Despite Scottish ministers’ unwavering commitment to Ardrossan since then, the communities of Ardrossan and Arran have been left in the dark and starved of information, as redevelopment has been repeatedly delayed. I know how they feel. I acknowledge that there are some commercial confidentiality issues, but, at last night’s meeting, the lack of transparency and communication was clearly a source of immense frustration for Ardrossan residents and Arranachs, who are reliant on ferry services and understandably feel beleaguered by the abysmal service that they endure.
Cast-iron commitments given by the Scottish Government, North Ayrshire Council and Peel Ports to the harbour project year after year have yet to result in shovels in the ground. The case for Ardrossan should not have to be restated, but it must be. Ardrossan is the shortest route in time and distance, which enables more sailings to be carried out daily. It is the only port with adequate public transport links to the ferry. Essential national health service and care workers are among the many people who commute daily to Arran. Ardrossan is by far the most economic option. In 2017, Peter Brett Associates calculated that switching the service to affluent Troon would cost CalMac 4.9 times more over 30 years than it would to keep the service at Ardrossan—the figure was £118.1 million for Troon compared with £24.1 million for Ardrossan. Since then, inflation has widened that gap.
Given Ardrossan’s deep-rooted deprivation, there is an indisputable socioeconomic case for retaining the service there. Stranraer provides a stark and worrying glimpse of life without the ferry service for Ardrossan. In November 2011, the Northern Ireland ferry service was relocated from Stranraer to Cairnryan. Stranraer’s economy contracted by a staggering 26 per cent the following year, with annual contractions of 3 per cent since.
Why, seven years on, has work still to commence at Ardrossan? I do not believe that it is for lack of trying by North Ayrshire Council or Scottish ministers. The Scottish Government has invested more than £142 million in port and harbour infrastructure across 26 Clyde and Hebrides ferry ports since 2012, including £20 million in Brodick, which was redeveloped six years ago. A tender, which is likely to come in at £8 million to £10 million for a new Cumbrae slip, is being progressed, so why not Ardrossan? The key difference is that the Tories privatised Ardrossan harbour in 1992. [Interruption.]
I will happily take an intervention from Mr Greene if he wishes to explain what benefits privatisation has brought to Ardrossan, or if he wants to apologise for the selling off of that strategic asset.
It was not me—I am up next.
If Ms Clark wants to make an intervention, I am happy to take it.
It was, indeed, me who was asking for an intervention.
Does Kenneth Gibson agree that the port should have been brought into municipal ownership, because, as he said, there has been considerable investment in ports? Does he agree that Peel Ports seems to be the problem at Ardrossan? That seems to be accepted by everybody in the chamber. We need that port in public ownership, and it would have been better if that had happened some time ago to enable progress to have been made.
As I mentioned, the Labour Party had plenty of opportunities to bring the port into public ownership. Of course, the local authority, when it was under Labour control, also promised to take into public ownership local banks, bus services and energy services, but it did none of those things. If members speak to the Scottish Parliament information centre, it will tell them that it is dubious whether bringing the port into public ownership can be achieved under devolution. However, if Katy Clark’s UK Government so wished, it could ensure that the port went back into public ownership.
Peel Ports’ lack of investment in its own asset has held Ardrossan hostage while causing operational difficulties and a decline in ferry resilience and reliability. The Irish berth, essential in easterly winds, was neglected until its sudden closure, while the Arran berth has had fenders fall into the Clyde. Despite receiving £15.48 million in harbour dues in the decade since 2013, Peel has failed to maintain and upgrade its harbour or engage with the local community. Of course, if the harbour is not redeveloped, Peel will lose its revenue stream.
Ardrossan harbour is now at a critical juncture. With the MV Glen Sannox being handed over in the coming weeks, the endless delays and uncertainty must end. We know that the UK Government has cut available capital funding by 20 per cent, that the Subsidy Control Act 2022 limits the room for manoeuvre and that renationalisation is extremely difficult under devolution. Nevertheless, it is time to bring this long-delayed business case to light and lay out a clear and transparent plan, with timescales for action. The people of Ardrossan and Arran deserve nothing less.
13:01
I assure Mr Gibson that I will address the issues that he raised in his speech—and I thank him for his speech. There has already been a lot to agree on in what has been said, and I am sure that there will be more of that to come.
I will be honest—I am not going to mince my words today, because people are angry. That palpable sense of anger has been building up over the years. It is not just me who is angry; it is our constituents on the entire west coast of Scotland, who have been let down. They are Katy Clark’s constituents, my constituents and Kenneth Gibson’s constituents. It is our islanders who are most angry. They are angry because we are still debating the delivery of ferries and the quality of our local ports.
I am angry that we always have to use Opposition time to bring up these issues in the absence of any Government debates. I hope that the Government will reflect on that. I am also angry that, seven months after the closure of the Irish berth at Ardrossan, an impasse leaves us no closer to any resolution on that part of the port.
When I brought the issue up last week in the chamber—I was probably standing just about where I am now—the Cabinet Secretary for Transport wanted to stress her sense of “deep frustration”. What an understatement. I can assure members and people in the gallery that no one in the SNP Government is anywhere near as frustrated as the islanders and ferry users themselves. They deserve much more than apologies; they deserve to be treated as every other Scot would be in such a circumstance.
I cannot believe that it has been seven years since the Scottish Government said that it would retain Ardrossan as the main Arran port. The original campaign—the keep it A to B campaign to save Ardrossan harbour—was a genuine cross-party effort by the trade union movement, all the political parties, local businesses and local campaigners and activists, all fighting against the move of the service to Troon, which was a very real threat. Eight years on, it is still not just a real threat but a real possibility.
The campaign made complete sense, because, in Ardrossan, people can step off the Arran ferry and straight on to a ScotRail train to go up to Glasgow, or they can be on the motorway to the central belt in just minutes.
I apologise to the organisers of last night’s meeting that I was not able to make it due to attending two cross-party group meetings. However, there should have been no need for such a meeting. I remember attending the original 2016 meeting; it was held in the same building, which was packed out to the rafters with people with the same concerns that I am sure were elicited last night.
Back in 2017, I asked the then Minister for Transport and the Islands, Humza Yousaf, who went on to greater and bigger things, what would happen in relation to the Glen Sannox and its ability to berth at Ardrossan port. We were reassured that every stakeholder was pulling out all the stops to get that right.
On 11 April 2018, Mr Yousaf said the following:
“The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that the Arran ferry service is fit for the future. These plans will help bring greater resilience and reliability to the link.”
Today, that assurance about “resilience and reliability” is risible, given the vessel breakdowns and repairs, the closure of the Irish berth, the annual overhauls and the late delivery of the Glen Sannox, which, I have just heard, has now been further delayed due to problems with the sea trials. I am sure that members will have more to say about that in the future. We are now relying on a vessel that is approaching the end of its life and another one that has been leased at eye-watering costs, to the extent that a new ferry could probably have been bought for the same price.
There is a comparison that I make when I talk to people about the issue. If a town with a similar population in the centre of Scotland—a town such as Cumbernauld, say—had suddenly had its road or rail access disconnected due to infrastructure failings, those problems would have been remedied in months or weeks, if not days. However, eight years on, Arran, because it is an island, is being forced simply to put up and shut up.
We know the cost of that to Arran’s economy. It is estimated that up to £13,000 is lost to the local economy every time a ferry is cancelled. We need to multiply that by thousands, given the number of cancellations. Members can do the math on that.
I do not want to get into the blame game of whether the current situation is the fault of CalMac, Peel Ports or North Ayrshire Council. All the stakeholders involved have not sat around the table. In addition, of course, the Government cannot simply remove itself from responsibility because it made the promise in the first place. That promise made is a promise broken.
I close with a warning. There is a genuine concern that the current move to Troon, albeit temporary, might become a permanent feature of the Arran route and the ferry will be lost from Ardrossan for ever, which will have a devastating impact on the economy of North Ayrshire. If that happens, the people of North Ayrshire will never forgive this Government.
I call Paul Sweeney, who will be the final speaker in the open debate.
13:07
I congratulate my colleague Ms Clark on lodging her members’ business motion, which I was happy to support. She adequately and comprehensively outlined the situation at Ardrossan, which, as other colleagues across the chamber have hinted at, is a symptom of a broader issue on the west coast of Scotland, in particular.
Scotland is unique among European countries in that our major ports have, in effect, been privatised—that has been the case for more than 30 years. The Clyde Port Authority, which was originally established through the merger in 1966 of the Clyde Navigation Trust, the Greenock Harbour Trust and the Clyde Lighthouses Trust, was managed as a trust port—in effect, a form of local authority—whereby it was democratically managed and democratically accountable until it was privatised under a statutory instrument of Parliament in 1992, the Clyde Port Authority Scheme 1991 Confirmation Order 1992. That happened with no real debate and no real public scrutiny; it was done in a very surreptitious manner. The order transferred the ownership of the entire port infrastructure and all the harbour authority responsibilities to a subsidiary of the Clyde Port Authority, Clydeport Ltd, which was in turn subject to a management buy-out in 1992. It was floated on the London Stock Exchange in December 1994 as Clydeport plc. In 2003, Clydeport was acquired by the private company Peel Ports, which remains its owner.
The difficulty with that is the scale of the company’s ownership. Clydeport is the largest port authority by geographic area in the UK—it covers 450 square miles of marine inshore land. It operates major infrastructure that the west coast economy depends on, including Greenock ocean terminal, the King George V dock in Glasgow, the Hunterston terminal, Ardrossan harbour, Greenock cruise terminal and Inchgreen dry dock, among other assets. Therefore, it is critical not just for the operation of lifeline ferry services, but for the entire economic development of the west of Scotland. A parliamentary debate on the subject has been lacking for some time.
In Scotland, we have a unique system, whereby we have three models of port ownership. We have private ports, of which Clydeport is one example, trust ports and local authority ports. The big problem with the privatised system of ports is that, while other countries are able to plan and invest in new port capacity in a coherent manner, so that they can, for example, align ferry procurement with port infrastructure development, in Scotland the state has, basically, abandoned its regulatory role. That means that private port owners are given port regulatory functions that should be state functions. In the UK, privatised ports have, in effect, been allowed to regulate themselves, which they have done, inevitably, in their own interests. That has been the case in the Clyde, the Forth and the Tay.
I agree that we should have a full and proper debate with more time to look at port infrastructure in Scotland, and there is probably quite a lot to agree on in some of Mr Sweeney’s other points. However, my concern is that even if all our ports were nationally owned and operated and none was held in private ownership, the current state of the public finances would still mean that lack of funds to invest in port infrastructure would leave us exactly where we are at the moment, if not in a worse place. Therefore, I do not see that as the magic solution to the problem.
The member makes an interesting point. It is important to recognise that we should not make the perfect the enemy of the good: we are where we are and must chart a coherent way forward. I would say that we can achieve better equilibrium in Scotland through improved regulation.
There are two key pieces of extant regulation. The Harbours Act 1964 gives Scottish ministers the power to reconstitute harbour authorities through a harbour revision order or, in extreme circumstances, a harbour closure order. The Marine Navigation Act 2013 allows Scottish ministers to remove a harbour authority’s pilotage duties.
Those legislative tools are available for further discussion, but I urge the minister to consider something that would be analogous to the approach that we have taken in recent years to bus regulation. We saw the privatisation of buses in the 1980s but are now using the Transport (Scotland) Act 2019 to improve regulation. That is not necessarily about nationalising bus companies; it is about having equilibrium through franchising or some form of oversight.
The new Clyde mission and the Glasgow city region deal might give us a mechanism to establish better oversight and governance of Clydeport. I am sure that Peel Ports would be happy to co-operate with that, given that it might help to cohere investment and to attract pension funds or others to invest in the development of the Clyde’s infrastructure. We have seen a rush of investment in ports on the east coast because of the ScotWind programme, but there has been a dearth of investment on the west coast. There have been recent improvements at the Greenock ocean terminal and hints of possible investment at Hunterston and Inchgreen, but Ardrossan is an investment desert, which has been a disaster for the local community and the wider Clyde economy.
I urge the minister to consider a deeper dive into the opportunity to improve regulation of the west coast ports because it is not only about improving services to local communities but about growing the entire national economy. With 450 square miles effectively part of a private fiefdom, we must look at improving that jurisdiction.
I invite the minister, Jim Fairlie, to respond to the debate.
13:12
I congratulate Katy Clark on securing the debate, which raises the important issue of progress on the Ardrossan harbour redevelopment project. The cabinet secretary would like to have been here to talk about this important issue but is in London meeting meeting UK ministers—which we should accept as being a good thing.
Before I respond to the motion, I take the opportunity, as others have done, to acknowledge that the service to Arran has been subject to significant disruption due to the outage of the MV Caledonian Isles this year. Jamie Greene said that the Government does not know the frustration of the locals. I assure the member that I have spoken to locals on Arran and absolutely get it. I have run a business and absolutely get his point about what happens when something that is out of your control causes you major issues.
The cabinet secretary engaged directly with CalMac on that matter to understand what mitigation was being put in place and updated Parliament on that in response to Jamie Greene’s topical question last week. Replacement parts have been ordered and CalMac anticipates that repairs will take up to 10 days following receipt of those parts, noting that the Isle of Arran is now in dry dock, which was pre-scheduled and, regrettably, could not be changed.
Although the charter of the MV Alfred and continued operation of the secondary route has partly mitigated the impact, the Scottish ministers are keen to ensure that the community gets the capacity and level of service that it requires. We thank CalMac and the community for the expedient work to ensure that Arran services continue with the redeployed MV Hebridean Isles.
That change has affected capacity on the Islay route, which will be supported by both the MV Finlaggan and the Lord of the Isles. Unfortunately, that has impacted on the Lochboisdale service, but CalMac has acted quickly to ensure additional services from today, by using the MV Isle of Mull to operate a combined service to Lochboisdale.
I thank the affected communities for their input as CalMac utilises its route prioritisation matrix to consider the available options. Despite people’s obvious frustrations, I hope that members recognise the efforts to support Arran’s services while the MV Caley Isles is repaired, and I hope that it will return to service very soon.
I hope that the minister is going to come on to the issue that we are debating today, which is Ardrossan harbour. We are in a position where Ardrossan harbour is going to lose its ferry service completely. I hope that the minister will have time to respond fully to the issues that have been raised about that.
Clearly, Katy Clark has not seen my papers, but that is exactly what I am about to come on to.
I acknowledge the call in the motion for a commitment to Ardrossan. As ministers, we have already given a prior commitment to retain the Ardrossan harbour following the initial 2017 exercise. However, as the Cabinet Secretary for Transport has previously highlighted, that must be underpinned by a robust business case, budget availability and commitment from the other funding partners.
I think that it will be helpful if I outline some of the key changes to the project across the timeline. Work commenced with the creation of the ministerial task force to oversee the works in 2016, and that remains on-going. We fully accept that it has taken longer than we hoped.
The Cabinet Secretary for Transport said that a statement would be made on the business case “very shortly”. That was 30 days ago, but we still do not have a date for when that statement will be made. The minister talked about the partners. What people are concerned about, including my constituents and those of other speakers in the debate, is that we are all being kept in the dark. What are the issues? What are the bottlenecks? What is the Scottish Government doing to resolve them? When is this going to be resolved?
I thank Kenny Gibson for that intervention. If he allows me to make progress, I will, I hope, give him some answers to some of the questions that he has asked.
In 2017, Scottish ministers made a commitment that Ardrossan would remain the long-term port for the Arran service, but further work was required to finalise the project. The design and planning stage progressed following receipt of a commercial case from the partners Peel Ports Group and North Ayrshire Council, with the design of the berth orientation being confirmed in April 2019. The berth realignment was a substantial change to the original design and, although it was agreed by all partners, it meant that significant additional funding was required from the Scottish Government to facilitate the development.
As members are aware, the original proposal was to be fully funded by North Ayrshire Council and Peel Ports, although Caledonian Maritime Assets Ltd would fund some elements around the passenger access system and the liquefied natural gas tank.
The project also requires legal agreement to underpin the investment by partners and ensure that the arrangements for future use of the port are robust and reflect the operations at other ports across the network. The funding contribution from the Scottish Government also needs to align with the requirements and the intervention rate restrictions under the UK Subsidy Control Act 2022. Discussions on those elements are progressing, but further work is required to finalise them. Ministers expect all partners to continue those discussions in parallel with completion of the business case.
The project partners worked collaboratively to progress the project to the tender procurement stage. However, in August 2023, Scottish ministers made the difficult decision to postpone the procurement and undertake a business case and cost exercise review.
Will the minister take an intervention?
I ask the member to let me make some progress.
That decision was not taken lightly, but the process of finalising the tender design and documents had highlighted inherent financial and project risks that remain a challenge for the main funding partners. On top of those concerns, the global escalation of construction costs compounded matters, resulting in the Scottish Government’s contribution doubling since the initial estimate. There is still uncertainty with regard to construction risks and cost that needs to be addressed.
As the ferry service will not operate from Ardrossan during the construction period, Scottish ministers invested in Troon to provide a temporary facility, which has had other benefits in supporting the service during recent disruption and ensuring that the port can be used as an alternative port in the longer term as it could offer more frequent services than the current Gourock alternative.
Transport Scotland has led on co-ordination of the business case review and cost exercise and it has continued to work closely with the project partners to progress that. However, it has proved to be a challenging process. Given the scale and importance of the investment, it is essential that we get the business case right. Additional work to support the case includes a socioeconomic assessment and a structural assessment of the stability and integrity of the port infrastructure to support the LNG tank. More recently, a valuation of the terminal building has been commissioned. All that work will help to finalise the position on the financial packages from each of the main funding partners.
Given the changes to the original commercial case and the project cost, the complexity of the project cannot be overestimated. I reiterate the message that the business case is substantially complete and that Transport Scotland is working with funding partners to finalise it as quickly as is practicable. A meeting of the task force will be convened soon, after the business case and the cost exercise review have been submitted to ministers for a decision.
Will you clarify that the issue that is holding the whole thing up is the funding partners—Peel Ports, North Ayrshire Council and the Scottish Government—agreeing how much each should pay and agreeing the total cost of the project, which Turner & Townsend estimated last August at £92 million?
All that I can say at this point is that a number of factors need to be agreed, but I repeat that a meeting of the task force will be convened soon, after the business case and the cost exercise review have been submitted to ministers for a decision.
I note the calls from some people for a change of ownership of the port, as though that can be made to happen overnight. Although I understand the community’s frustrations, the reality is different and the process is complex. It is important that we work through the current business case to ensure that the case for development is fully considered. The funding requirements, affordability and subsidy control issues all need to be addressed.
I stress that the cabinet secretary is absolutely determined to bring the work to a conclusion as quickly as she possibly can. I hope that my remarks have helped to provide an indication of the active and complex work that is under way to ensure that ministers have all the information that is needed to finalise this important decision. I reiterate that a strong and robust business case is required and that confirmation of the wider funding packages is essential in the process.
Will the minister give way?
I have taken three interventions already, so I will push on.
We fully understand the importance of the matter to ensuring the most resilient ferry service to and from Arran, and I give to the people and businesses in and around Ardrossan and on Arran my assurance of the Government’s absolute commitment to finding a solution that works and progressing it as soon as we possibly can. We will update Parliament and the communities as soon as that is the case.
13:21 Meeting suspended.Previous
First Minister’s Question Time