 The next item of business is members' business debate on motion 8659, in the name of Jackie Bailey, on the Gorych Kilcregan ferry service. The debate will be concluded without any questions being put, and I would ask those who wish to speak in the debate to press the request to speak buttons. I call on Jackie Bailey to open the debate around seven minutes, please. I welcome the opportunity to discuss the future of the Gorych Kilcregan ferry service. Let me thank the MSPs who backed my motion, and I'm pleased to have secured support of every party represented in the west of Scotland. At the outset, I want to pay tribute to the passengers who use the ferry and have campaigned over many years for an improved service. They have been stoic in the face of constant adversity, but frankly, Presiding Officer, enough is enough. Some of them have travelled to the Parliament today to watch the debate from the public gallery. Others are watching from whom. I am relieved that they even managed to get here on time, given the constant disruption to their ferry service. Kilcregan has always relied on the River Clyde for its transport links, dating back to the Victorian era when wealthy Glasgow merchants built grand summer houses along the shoreline of the Roseneith peninsula. Back then, the Clyde steamers took them directly to Glasgow's Bromilaw. Today, local residents can't even depend on a reliable service to Gorych. It's fair to say that this year has probably seen the most severe disruption on record. The Kilcregan ferry is operated by ClydeLink and the contract was renewed by Strathclyde partnership for transport earlier this year. I have to tell you that the Kilcregan ferry is now the nautical equivalent of faulty towers, but even ClydeLink makes Basil faulty look competent. Barely a fortnight goes by without another problem, resulting in crossings being cancelled or the service being suspended completely for days at a time. In June, the service was suspended for seven days after the maritime and coastguard agency inspectors found serious defects on board the island princess. There were problems with life jackets, a fire pump, fire extinguishers and crew members with no evidence of basic safety training. Then, in July, the service was again suspended for 10 days due to more failed MCA inspections. In August, staff shortages were there because they had holidays. No planning for a replacement so the service gets suspended again. Later in the month, it was off again because of paperwork being incomplete and unsatisfactory. Let me take you to September. The service was suspended twice for a whole week on the first occasion and then a day on the second. The same pattern repeated throughout October and November. What began as a summer of chaos for ferry passengers has extended into the autumn and winter. The ferry is off more than it's on. In every single month since the contract was renewed and to top it all last Friday, a fight broke out between one member of the crew and the skipper. Both have been arrested. Now, you just couldn't make this stuff up and every time the ferry is off, passengers need to make a 52-mile journey by replacement bus service instead of the usual 13-minute ferry crossing because there is no back-up vessel. This is a lifeline service, particularly for the communities on my side of the river. I know that passengers use the ferry to get to work, to get to college or university, to access health services that are based predominantly in hospitals on the south of the client. The impact of the disruption on their daily lives cannot be underestimated. I have spoken to constituents who have missed job opportunities because they couldn't get to that interview, others who have been disciplined because of their timekeeping through no fault of their own and others who have given up on the ferry completely and moved out of the area. The local businesses on the peninsula have lost out on revenue from tourists, cyclists and daytrippers on the days that the service was cancelled. If reliability does not improve, then visitors might not return next season either. Let me just tell you a little fact that we gleaned from FOI. Clyde Link, the ferry operator, owe over £30,000 in unpaid pier fees to our Gile and Butte Council. Frankly, that's a disgrace. However, such is the frustration of my local community that the peninsula choir has become the most likely contenders for Christmas number one with the new song that they have recorded criticising the slow and bureaucratic response from officialdom. Hundreds of people have signed my petition calling on SPT and the Scottish Government to take the service out of the hands of Clyde Link immediately. I have lost count of the number of times that I have had very productive meetings with the Minister for Transport to discuss this issue. I was delighted when, before the Scottish Parliament elections, the Scottish Government agreed in principle to transfer the service. Last October, Humza Yousaf confirmed that Transport Scotland and SPT had reached an agreement in principle. That's great news. However, the transfer has been held back by the delays to the Scottish Government's review of EU state aid rules on ferry procurement. Transport Scotland has confirmed that SPT has now provided all the information that it needs, so the only thing that we are waiting for is the conclusion of the review. However, I asked the Minister why we need to wait. In June, the Scottish Government assumed direct responsibility for the ferry service between Oban and the small island of Carrera. The route was immediately incorporated into the CalMac contract, and the community will get a newly built vessel, thanks to the Government's intervention. The review wasn't an issue there. It doesn't need to be an issue here either. If there is a will, then, Transport Minister, there is a way you can do this. SPT has issued a new tender notice for the service from next June, and I welcome that, because the poor service is, frankly, appalling. I welcome the action that was taken by Councillor Martin Bartos and the senior management team at SPT, but that cannot go on. We must have a reliable operator, and we must have one now, because the impact on my constituents and those from across the river is huge. We have been really patient, but my community is not patient anymore. We have put up with this for seven months, and we are not prepared to put up with it any longer. Parahandy would be better than the shambles, so I urge the Scottish Government and SPT to get beyond the reassurances. We have had all of those. Please take action and please do it now. I say to those in the public gallery that it is not appropriate to show appreciation or otherwise. We move on to the open debate speeches of four minutes please, and I call on Stuart McMillan to be followed by Jamie Greene. I would like to congratulate Jackie Baillie on securing this important member's debate this afternoon. Unfortunately, the issue of the Gwyrwch, Col Craig and Ferry service has been a continued massive inconvenience for the users in my constituency and also in the north of the river. Jackie Baillie set out many of the problems that the service has been beset with, so I am not going to go over most of that ground, but it is sufficient to say that it is clear that SPT have failed from the outset with this service, and their complete incompetence in managing the service is there for all to see. I have not always been an advocate for Transport Scotland taking the service on, but over the past two months my opinion has certainly changed. Prior to the current service providers operating the run, the service seemed to operate with little fuss. Obviously, the re-tendering had to take place, and the current providers won the tender with an apparent £1 million saving to the public purse. The financial saving, however, will no doubt have been nullified by others, as the service has lurched from one cancellation to another, and the effects that this has had upon local businesses, both north and south of the river. Locally, only two individual constituents have raised the issue with me, although it has been raised regularly by the Greenock West Cardwell Bay Community Council, unlike Jackie Baillie. I have written regularly to SPT, Transport Scotland and the previous and current Transport Ministers to try to get progress with this saga. Over time, I have come to this one simple conclusion, that SPT should not be in charge of the Gwyrwch Kilkregen ferry service. They have mismanaged the service, they have let users down and they have proven once and for all that they care little for the Clyde coast. I have raised the issue many times, and in my recent correspondence with SPT, dated 11 August, my opening sentence was that the Gwyrwch Kilkregen ferry route contract was renewed in April of this year, and frankly, the performance has been nothing short of appalling. The reply that has come in within a week has stated that the contract specification to which Clyde Link is operating does not require a backup vessel or for it to supply a replacement bus service. That certainly seems to contrast with the comments in the press release that was issued by SPT in January 2012, when the contract was awarded when it stated that, using a new-build 60-seat vessel, Clyde Link will provide a Monday to Saturday service between Gwyrwch and Kilkregen. The vessel that is used is the MBE Island Princess, which is not a new-build for the route. Is there a potential that the press release issued by SPT is not accurate, or has it just been sleeping on the job? Irrespective of the chicanery coming from SPT on the issue and going back to when they signed the contract, the situation has not improved and it has left a sour taste on the mouths of many people on both sides of the Clyde. I have a meeting with the Minister for Transport on 12 December and I am looking forward to having discussions about it directly and hopefully try to find a way forward. However, the issues with the route are not new. They have not just been for the last year. They have kept persisting over the years due to the many faults, but it is clear that SPT is not the correct organisation to be in charge of the service that affects both sides of the Clyde. When the contract was initially awarded way back in 2012, it was a different-run group of individuals who ran SPT. I certainly hope that the new group of councillors on SPT can now force through a change of mindset in that organisation to get them to take responsibility for the problems of their own making. The people who use the Gwrigol Cregon ferry service deserve a working and reliable ferry service, and if that means that Transport Scotland becomes the agency to deliver it, then so be it. However, it really is in stark contrast to the delivering services at local level agenda, which so many of us in the chamber support. I am sure that, if Transport Scotland takes responsibility for the route, it will be accused of centralisation. I think that it is irrespective of whoever controls the route that my constituents and the constituents north of the river deserve a service that is going to work when they say that it is going to work and to abide by the contract that has been signed. Thank you very much. I call Jamie Greene to be followed by Neil Bibby. Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. I am very pleased to participate in this debate. Having raised the issue in this chamber a few weeks ago with the First Minister, I think that it is very telling that no one is really making any political points today, that the support for Jackie Baillie's motion comes from across the chamber, and I am very pleased to see the local member for Inverclyde, Mr McMillan, and to participate in this debate. This is really about people, the service. It simply cannot be allowed to continue as it is. The status quo is completely untenable and unacceptable to people on both sides of the Clyde. The passenger numbers in the service have really been plummeting. In 2009, 2010, around 71,000 people used the service regularly, and that has dropped to around 53,000 last year. It is no great surprise, given the unreliability of the service. Passengers have fallen around 30 per cent, and possibly as a result of its unreliability. Despite the number of passengers that have fallen, the service remains quite a similar size to many other routes, some of which are opied by CalMac, which carry a comparable number of passengers annually and more reliably. One must ask why the service has been allowed to descend into such disarray. Instead of looking backwards, I would like to look forward as well as to what we could do about the situation. The current contract with ClydeLink costs a taxpayer around £320,000 per year. That is an increase compared to the previous contract on the service, an increase of around £80,000. On top of that, there is the matter of the subsidy that ClydeLink also received, which increased by around 55 per cent in the new contract. The ferry claims to be, and I quote, a frequent reliable ferry service from Gwroch to Col Craighan. Well, anyone who lives in Gwroch or Col Craighan knows that this statement simply is not true. On several occasions, there have been a number of staffing issues, and this has led to limiting the number of passengers that are able to use the service for safety reasons. The reason for that is that staffing shortages mean that often less qualified shipmates captain the service, and this limits the number of passengers to just 12 when at peak times the service should actually be carrying around 50 people, which is the vessel's current maximum capacity. To have just a quarter of the amount of people on board is simply unacceptable. Technical faults have also caused the majority of delays and cancellations, and in fact, high winds have only disrupted the ferry two times since June, to my knowledge. This will only get worse, however, as winter kicks in and the weather picks up. The motion that Jackie Baillie has presented to us notes that disruptions have become particularly acute since June. To put it into context, there have been over 50 days of disruption since June of this year, but this matter does not start in June. This has very much been a long-standing issue for quite a long time on affecting people on both sides of the Clyde. The problem is that, when the service is cancelled, the only alternative is to go by roads, and that is over a 100-mile journey. That is simply unacceptable to the many different types of users who use the service, people commuting to Greenock, to attend college, people who are travelling daily to work. I have heard stories from constituents who have got the ferry to work only to discover that they could not get the ferry home and then had to get the bus home, or you are either called for someone to come round the Clyde and actually pick them up. It takes hours, and it is the last thing that you want at the end of a long day at work. It is also affecting tourism, and it is also affecting people's ability to get to Inverclyde rural hospital as well, so the ramifications of that are quite large. As I said, looking forward, I was particularly unsure as to what the best solution is, as to whether the SBT should renew the contract, whether it should continue to maintain the contract. I think that there is a general feeling in the chamber today that, perhaps, Transport Scotland should be looking to take the contract on board. In my meeting with the transport minister on this issue, he promised to look at the issue and to review the cost of the service and the ramifications of taking it into his department. I wonder if he might update us on any progress that he has made with those thoughts. Either way, whether it is the existing operator or a new operator, or whether it comes under the guise of Transport Scotland, people just want a reliable service that works on time when they want it to. That is the outcome that everyone in the chamber wants. I thank Jackie Baillie for securing this debate today and for ensuring that the concerns and indeed frustrations of those who rely on the Gwric to Kilcregans service are put on the record here in the Scottish Parliament. Jackie Baillie quite rightly spoke about the importance of the ferry to the community in Kilcregan and the surrounding areas. The shot-crossing to Gwric makes hospitals, shops and public services accessible for those who would struggle to reach the same destinations timelessly and economically if travelling by land. To many people, the ferry is a lifeline service that makes living on the Rosneith peninsula viable. Without that service, fragile communities would be even more exposed to the population and the risk of exclusion and isolation. Disruption to the service brings disruption to people's lives in those communities, too. Of course, it is not just passengers based on the Kilcregan side of the crossing who depend on the ferry, but people departing from the Gwric side, too, in particular the workforce at the naval base on the Clyde. For them, the alternative, as we have heard, to a 13-minute journey by ferry is a 90-minute journey by land—a massive increase in their total commuting time. Yet, with frequent cancellations, staffing issues, mechanical faults, safety defects and fundamental questions about the ability of the current operator to deliver a safe, consistent and reliable service, that hour-and-a-half journey is one that commuters are having to take more and more. That is unacceptable. That is a service that ClydeLink is contracted to provide. It is not optional. It is a contractual requirement. The extension to the contract agreed by SBT earlier this year was reportedly worth £320,000. That is £320,000 of taxpayers' money. ClydeLink has been unable to demonstrate that they are capable of honouring that contract and meeting the agreed terms of service. The contract should be cancelled and a new operator should be found. The chair of SBT, Martin Bartos, as Jackie Baillie mentioned, has confirmed that, in his opinion, the situation that travellers presently find themselves in, dependent on such an unreliable service, is unacceptable. He also advised that SBT have arranged for checks of both the island princess vessels and the crew, and he specifically said that any deficiencies will be reported. However, action is needed on the contract itself. I note the announcement from SBT that they will be tendering early after what was reported in the Greenock Telegraph as increasing frustration with ClydeLink. Moose to replace ClydeLink with a more dependable operator is welcome. However, as others have said, largely for historic reasons, the Kilcregan ferry is in an anomalous position and is still being provided by SBT. Surely now is the time for the Scottish Government to make good on its promise to assume responsibility for the service. Surely now is the time for SBT and the Scottish Government to transfer responsibility for the Kilcregan to Transport Scotland. No more delays, no more provocation, let's just get it done. That's what passengers want, including hundreds of passengers who signed Jackie's Bailey's petition on the subject, some of them who have joined us here today. That's what the communities want, including Cardwell Bay and Greenock West Community Council in my own region, who I've specifically called on the Scottish Government to, and I quote, resolve this once and for all. I can see no reason why the Scottish Government should be dragging their heels. The misery for passengers has gone on for too long, enough is enough, it's time for the Scottish Government to intervene and I would urge the Scottish Government to intervene. Thank you. The last of the open debate contributions is from Maurice Corry. Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. I'd like to start by thanking Jackie Bailey for bringing this debate, and it's an important debate for our community to the chamber today. I also welcome the residents from the peninsula and other, and Nimbus Clyde as well. It's great to see you here, and it just shows the Minister what support we have in trying to sort this problem out. The concregarant ferry has been a long-established link between the north and south side of Clyde, which has now dropped sadly to around 50,000 passengers a year from the 80,000 when it was running really well. The primary reason for this drop in travellers is due to the unreliability of the service, forcing commuters to find alternative and much longer and costlier routes to work, as other speakers have said already. Many of the members in the chamber today will experience delays on trains, buses and other modes of public transport. Therefore, they will be able to appreciate the frustration and the inconvenience that this causes, even on the odd occasion. However, when it becomes a regular and constant occurrence, it becomes unacceptable and a daily nuisance, which costs people unnecessary time, money and stress. Last year, there were also problems, and it was suggested that Transport Scotland should assume responsibility for the service. At the time, I made it clear that the offering of a short-term contract would only continue the problems that were experienced with the service, as a 16-month contract offered was not long enough to attract new investment. I was stressed again that the service needs a long-term, well-funded contract to ensure that the service is managed efficiently. There will appear to be a unanimous agreement in the transfer of the contract from SPT to Transport Scotland, although it must be kept as a single service and not bundled into another contract, taking the focus away from the important service between Corkregan and Gwreg. Colleagues across party lines on both sides of the Clyde have been campaigning for the end of the contract and the issue of a new one. I understand that, by cancelling the contract, it leaves no service, which would be even worse than the current situation. However, SPT could issue a new tender with a transfer clause if Transport Scotland were ready to agree to take the service over. My team and I have been proactively working on the issue to find a solution and have highlighted local businesses that are willing and keen to put together a tender. I urge SPT to issue a tender to get this process under way to resolve the issue as quickly as possible for the benefit of commuters who would have to travel over an hour instead of a 10-minute journey. I welcome the fact that the tender is out. The tender date is about to close and, hopefully, we will have a new operator. Maurice Corry I welcome that, and I am glad to see that that has actually happened. The importance of this journey refers particularly to the workforce at Coolport and Fasleyne, which is a very important employer. We know that, at peak times, that ferry is terribly important to get people from Inverclyde across and back later on in the evening in the day. Due to its large increase in travelling time and inconvenience, it deters daytrippers from visiting the Rose Neath Peninsula, particularly and heavily impacting on local businesses. Cochregan village has formed several very good local businesses, which are suffering massively as a result. An example of that is an individual who travels from Goerich to Cochregan to visit the award-winning butchers on behalf of several families. While the order is being prepared and enjoys a few pints in the local pub, groups of cyclists, walkers, etc., are also unable to make the trip or choose other destinations due to the risk of not being able to return home. Only last week there was a song release to raise awareness, as Jackie referred to. My colleagues in the gallery have worked studiously at the awareness issue performed by the local provincial acquire on Cochregan player. I am delighted to see some of them here today in the galleries that I referred to. The project was co-ordinated by my team as a community project to highlight those issues and to bring the attention of the Scottish Government, the frustration being caused not just within Cochregan and Cove but also in Gwric and Greenock and in Verklyde. That has created a tension as far away as Australia and California were a choir where I wished the group good luck in sorting out our service and applauded the local community for raising issues in such a creative and unique way and well done to the choir in doing so. I hope that the minister has seen the video of the song and has noted the support for the service and its importance to the local community. In conclusion, Deputy Presiding Officer, with those points in mind, I had once again appealed to the minister to bring the service under the control of Transport Scotland to ensure its reliable, safe and efficient operation in the future. As the final line of the song says, we need our wee ferry and we need it now. I call on Hamza Yousaf to respond to the debate. I thank Jackie Baillie for bringing the motion for debate to the Parliament and for the excellent contributions across the chamber. There are a number of common threads that I will try to comment on. I will try to answer some of the questions that have been asked by members and they can intervene if they think that I am omitting anything. I will try to get right into the nub of the issue. We are very acutely aware, and I am, of the recent periods of significant disruption, as described particularly by Jackie Baillie, to the good at Cochregan ferry service. I understand the frustrations of passengers that rely on this important link and my role as Minister for Transport and the Islands. I hear from service users from right across Scotland whenever a ferry service is disrupted, whether that be due to whether related reasons or technical issues or other unforeseen circumstances. I have, of course, in relation to this specific service, met with Jackie Baillie. We will soon be meeting with Stuart McMillan, and I have met with members of the Cochregan community council on this issue. I have exchanged a number of letters with them and I am aware that officials have recently met with community council members on both sides of the crossing and heard first hand how the disruption has affected them. I would like to welcome members, or ferry service users, to the gallery. In fact, the user of the ferry service would be, of course, quite entitled to make a song and dance about this disruption to the service. I have viewed the performance of our Cochregan ferry. I would like to congratulate all those involved. It was a very novel way, of course, of making their point, but born out of their very real anger, their very real frustration. As Jackie Baillie will know, disruption affects workers' travelling too. From Fazlain and Kilport, as our colleague Neil Bibby has said, commuters travelling to Goruch, as Stuart McMillan has said, for their onward connections on to Glasgow, locals using the service and businesses on both sides of the crossing. It is quite clear that we are all in agreement that the current service offering is simply not acceptable for anyone. However, it is also clear, which has been said by every member here correctly, that SPT holds the responsibility for the service. I have met the chair, Councillor Martin Barthaus, and had a number of discussions with him, whether on over the phone or face to face, where I have expressed my concern. On the issue that many members have asked me to address on the transfer of responsibility, the ferries plan 2013-22 stated that the Scottish Government is willing to be responsible for all lifeline ferry services in Scotland, subject to the principles set out in the plan, and that we would work with local authorities and regional transport partnerships to discuss the possibility of the Scottish Government taking over the responsibility for the ferry service. Where are the issues that still need to be discussed? I absolutely appreciate from Jackie Baillie and Stuart McMillan's constituent's point of view that it might seem like bureaucracy. Is the issue of the true cost of the ferry service? Jackie Baillie rightly highlighted that the vessel that is being used has over 30 defects noted by the regulator, the MCA. Some of those defects were serious defects. For the Scottish Government and Transport Scotland to take on that service, we would have to know the true cost, which would include replacing the vessel that I gave away to Jackie Baillie. Jackie Baillie, I am grateful to the minister for taking on the intervention. Would he confirm, though, that the SPT have provided Transport Scotland with all the information that they have requested in order for you to make that decision? Recently, I have received some more information from SPT and I have promised councillor Martin Barthors that I will take a very close examination and a look of that. I do want to talk about a way forward, but I just wanted to make the point here that there are some very legitimate concerns and questions that we have about the true cost, which we need to have the answers to. The other point that has been mentioned, that I think is absolutely right, is that, of course, recently it has been advised that the SPT of their plans to retender the service, which has gone out, I think that the tender closes on 4 December or thereabouts. Of course, what is really important about that tender is that the SPT has put more of an emphasis on quality over price, which I think will be very welcome. What I will do is wait for that tendering process to close, re-engage my conversations with councillor Martin Barthors, see what his feelings are about the expressions of interest that have come forward. With the information that he has recently provided, as Jackie Baillie mentioned, I will have a further and continued conversation about the transfer of the responsibility, but every single member here has been absolutely right in saying that the service provided by the operator is simply not acceptable. The offer is there to SPT that, if they wish to explore whether or not the operator has lived up to their legal obligations, I am more than happy to provide for them use and resource in the expertise of Transport Scotland and, indeed, there are other experts in the field to examine and work with SPT to see whether that can be explored in further detail. I agree with Jackie Baillie to wait for the re-tendering of a service that would not possibly come into service until summer next year. You cannot have months and months and months and months of continued disruption. If that is a helpful offer that I will make to SPT, I will certainly do that. However, I want to wait until the tender closes to re-engage conversations with the head of SPT. Jamie Greene I thank the minister for taking my intervention. Based on the comments that he has made in the limited time that we have in this debate, is he saying that his understanding that this is not a lifeline service and that it could not be classified as one? Secondly, is he also saying, possibly indirectly, that if it is identified that the cost is more than the current £300 odd thousand, if he deems it to be too much, Transport Scotland simply would not take on board the liability of the service and be a bit confused as to what the plan of action is at moving forward? Humza Yousaf I was not disagreeing over the nature of the service at all and there is a very clear definition of lifeline services in our ferry plans. That is not the issue of any bone of contention. What I am saying simply is, I think, very reasonably, I would hope, that in order for us, if we were to take responsibility, we would need to know the true cost of that. If we have a budget in a couple of weeks' time, we would need to know the exact cost of that, which would not just be the contract cost per annum, because clearly there is an issue around the vessel. I am saying that we need to drill down into what the cost of replacing that vessel would be. It would require a backup vessel perhaps. What is the true value of taking over the entirety of the contract? As was done in previous examples, as Jackie Baillie mentioned, we need to have that. SPT has provided some further information. I promise to have a look at that. If it is helpful now that the tender is approaching close, once it has closed, I will have a further conversation with Martin Bartos and every single member who has spoken here. I will endeavour to give an update, because we have in principle, as Jackie Baillie mentioned, an agreement there to take over lifeline services. I do not shy away from that, but it is based on the criteria that I set out in the ferry's plan. It is important for us to see what the feedback is from the tendering exercise. I would welcome members' thoughts on that, and I will certainly give my thoughts to that to SPT. I can give a guarantee to members that, on the closure of that tendering process, I will re-engage with the chair of SPT, who I must remind the chamber has responsibility for this ferry service. It is my hope that, with the steps that SPT has taken, with the continuation of the conversation, it will provide users with a much more improved service offering, and one that they can, hopefully, rely on. That concludes the debate, and the meeting is suspended until half-past 2.