South Uist Business Impact Group (SUBIG) is urging First Minister, John Swinney, to take steps to improve the island’s ferry service
Dear First Minister,
South Uist Business Impact Group (SUBIG) is appalled that yet again South Uist has been targeted for the greatest reduction in, and disruption to, ferry service at the hands of Scottish Government owned CalMac.
Earlier this month we, and other community organisations, were invited to provide feedback on a number of options to provide service given the dire state of the fleet and insufficient vessels being available to maintain a full service. We provided our feedback and clearly reasoned arguments in good faith (see below). Yet we received no response to our feedback other than an acknowledgment of receipt, no reply to our invitation for the Area Manager to attend a meeting, and despite your colleague, our MSP Dr Alastair Allan, also writing to CalMac echoing our concerns, we find not one of our suggestions has been acted upon, not one of our requests has been granted, and the only option that would have provided a reasonable service to South Uist has been thrown out.
We are now looking at a significant reduction in service to the mainland going into the busy tourist season, a vital time for the island’s economy, with a ship running just once a day to a port 86 miles from our usual mainland port, capable of carrying just 45 passengers. And this after a winter which has seen a similar reduction in service for the past several months.
In 2022 when South Uist lost its service completely for 17 days in May an independent economic impact assessment clearly demonstrated that the island lost hundreds of thousands of pounds as a direct result of the ferry being cancelled, amounting to an average of £4,000 per business. Uist businesses are again looking at similar if not greater losses with the limited ferry service being offered providing such little capacity. If we were allowed to flourish, we would earn taxable revenue that would offset much of the investment required. Of equal value is the reputational damage being done to Uist with long term effects on both business investment and tourism.
On Thursday 27th Feb we met with CalMac’s Outer Hebrides Area Manager: Not only is he based in Greenock, far removed from the lived experience of island communities but so poor are the ferry services that he flew to the island with Loganair in order to meet us.
First Minister, we implore you, please do not forget Uist. We ask you to:
- Instruct CalMac to revisit their plans to cut South Uist services and at least provide a fullcapacity ferry on two days a week, including Saturday during the coming months of disruption.
- Put in place resilience grant funding for island businesses in affected postcodes
(HS6, HS7, HS8). It was done during Covid and can easily be done again now. We appreciate
the zero-
rating of business rates again this year but suggest that it is misguided to spend such a large sum on Harris and Lewis (postcodes HS1- 5) as they have suffered only minimal disruption in recent years with many of their hotels fully booked out by construction companies engaged on projects around Stornoway for years ahead: the remainder should be used to provide a resilience grant for the businesses of Uist. - Guarantee that a new ferry for South Uist will be ordered this year. It is has been
delayed years already and the only ferry capable of serving the route to Mallaig-
Lochboisdale is already 36 years old and regularly breaks down, last year suffering a fire in the engine room that put it out of service for a month. - Guarantee that the new port at Gasay (Lochboisdale) will go ahead. It has been delayed over a year already and called in yet again for assessment while the existing pier is at the end of its life having had remedial work 3 years ago to make it last a final 5 years – time is up for you to act.
Island businesses only want an opportunity to succeed and cannot do so with one arm
tied behind their backs. Well-maintained transport infrastructure is the lifeblood
of any economy, yet your government is denying this to communities of Uist. Indeed,
the Scottish Government and related agencies (e.g. HIE) have recently provided millions
of pounds of funding for the Cnoc Soilleir centre for Gaelic learning, arts & events
– yet without a ferry, who can visit?
We invite you to visit our community to help you fully understand how badly businesses and South Uist community life is affected by the continuing ferry fiasco.
John Daniel Peteranna
On Behalf of South Uist Business Impact Group (SUBIG)
Open letter: South Uist seeks urgent action over diminished ferry service
4 March 2025
