Note of meeting to discuss Caledonian MacBrayne’s Proposal for the / ferry service held in The Queen’s Hall, Dunoon on 5th March 2002

Present Councillor J.R. Walsh in the chair

Councillor D. MacIntyre Councillor Currie Councillor Chenell Councillor R. Macintyre Councillor McKinven Councillor McQueen Councillor Marshall Councillor Scoullar Councillor Strong

Provost D. Roach, Council

Hugh Dan MacLennan, Caledonian MacBrayne Andrew Horne, Caledonian MacBrayne Colin Gillies, Caledonaian MacBrayne

Attending A. Gow, Director of Transportation and Property A. Lothian, Area Manager, Transportation G.B. McKenzie, Area Corporate Services Manager Clare McFadden, Local Committee Services Officer

The Chairman welcomed everyone to this meeting and introduced those present.

He said the purpose was to hopefully hear from the Representatives of Caledonian MacBrayne the true background to the recent newspaper articles about the Gourock/Dunoon ferry service as he suspected there had been a certain amount of journalistic licence in what was actually published.

Hugh Dan MacLennan said that his Company had not released this information to any representative of the press but they obviously had to respond to media enquiries when the matter became public. He said that at present the Company were in the process of looking at all their services as part of the coming tendering process and they were costing a wide range of service options. The acknowledged major technical difficulties with the MV Pioneer and the article should have concentrated on that one vessel, not the route. Although they were examining options concerning this vessel there was no intention to remove the other vessels employed on the route and he had made this clear to a recent meeting of the Shipping Services Advisory Committee. However the proposals concerning the Pioneer had not yet been finalised and would have to go to the Calmac Board for any decision. He confirmed that the Board options were still working documents and would form part of the tendering process. He stressed that their current obligation was to provide a Passenger Only Service and they would continue to do so reminding those present that the Company was providing a vehicle service which they had no intention of cutting.

There followed some questions on the options concerning the MV Pioneer and Hugh Dan MacLennan said that laying up this vessel and providing and alternative passenger only service alongside the current Streakers had been considered. He also said that there were ongoing discussions within his Company and with the Scottish Executive and all options would be examined. He confirmed to A. Gow that should there be any proposals to vary the service provision proper consultation would take place however Cllr Scoullar said there should be no reduction in the Clyde services before the specification for the tendering process is drawn up.

The discussion them moved on to the utilisation of the replacement Sheltered Waters vessel and he said the Company hoped to have approval to place orders for two new vessels for the / route.

Everyone present, having heard Calmac’s proposals, agreed that at present there was a danger of everything being ‘on hold’ awaiting the outcome of the tendering process.

Hugh Dan MacLennan said that a meeting was taking place today between Senior Management of Calmac and the Scottish Executive that may address some of the uncertainties and the Board would consider service options at their meeting tomorrow. He agreed that future meetings with the elected representatives of the service users would be useful and acknowledged that a further meeting on this subject would be held shortly with representatives from the Scottish Executive, Calmac and Council.

The Chairman suggested that a joint press release should be issued on behalf of the Council and the Company to outline their discussions and co-operation on this matter and Hugh Dan MacLennan agreed to liaise with Fiona Wallace on this matter.

The Chairman then thanked everyone for attending and for the open responses and discussion which had taken place.