Kenny MacAskill: It's time for McColl to be given another crack at Ferguson Marine

LAST week saw me heading “doon the water” where the weather was glorious and the view, as ever, majestic. But the mood was sombre at Ferguson Marine in Port Glasgow, where I was meeting the shop stewards.

For storm clouds are yet again gathering over the last shipyard on the Lower Clyde. Yet, it just shouldn’t be so.

It is only just over a decade since all seemed secured when Jim McColl took over the yard. Rightly, that was universally welcomed, and the future looked bright. After all, Scotland is a nation with numerous islands and archipelagos requiring ships and ferries, not for a cruise but for literally lifeline services – upon which communities depend for their very existence.

Meanwhile, the Clyde was synonymous with shipbuilding on its upper and lower banks.

Clydebank was formed from the expansion of yards on the Upper Clyde. On the Lower Clyde, not just Fergusons but Scott Lithgow further down the river in Greenock were the bedrock of the towns. Fergusons shutting down would be devastating in an area already challenged by unemployment and deprivation.

Building the ships our communities need in yards with a heritage and skill base was frankly a no-brainer. McColl intended to not just secure the yard but expand into other sites on the river as work increased.

The age of the CalMac fleet, with repeated breakdowns, means there will be new orders year after year for decades to come. Then those being built will need replaced and on it should go. The construction and servicing of offshore wind requires ships and boats.

Are we really going to see them built abroad as is shamefully happening with the bulk of the turbines being installed?

Is this to be yet another aspect of an unjust transition? We need ferries and boats, we need the industrial and skills base, and we need the work from our renewables. But there has been a catalogue of failures and McColl was supplanted at Fergusons by the Scottish Government. The situation has worsened and the future looks grim.

The yard has struggled with the Glen Sannox and Glen Rosa and the order book beyond the latter is empty. There needs to be an inquiry into what has gone wrong. Millions have been wasted, the delays are inexplicable and the budget overrun criminal.

But none of that is the fault of those who work on the ferries or indeed in the yard. Instead, it’s down to catastrophic failures by those in charge and it’s costing us all a fortune given the level of state financial support required.

The wrong organisation was put in charge of procurement, the wrong ferries were acquired, and the wrong people are now trying to sort things.

Ferries owner CMAL should be abolished –it’s a quango too far and its actions have been catastrophic. Let CalMac decide what ships it wants. The dual fuel LNG/marine diesel model was absurd and lies at the heart of the Glen Sannox and Glen Rosa failures.

What the future holds for those ships, who knows, but other vessels needed for our country will not be using that frankly ludicrous design.

The contract was also signed off on the direct instructions of the Scottish Government without the full terms being agreed. Hence the costs increased as problems and aspects not factored in arose. Now a Fergusons board which I would say lacks knowledge and experience is presiding over a revolving door of CEOs, all paid off at huge expense, while the ratio of suits in the offices to workers in overalls is ridiculously out of kilter.

So, what needs to be done? Lease in vessels from wherever to address the immediate needs for vulnerable communities. But at the same time ensure that future orders for the CalMac fleet go to Fergusons, not to Turkey or the Mersey as with recent ones.

Transport Secretary Fiona Hyslop has rightly announced a direct award to CalMac for operating the service and it should do likewise with Fergusons for building them.

That would provide the vessels for the communities which need them and the work for the yard that equally requires it.

But there also needs to be a change in management at the yard. There’s been something wrong there and it’s not with the skills of the workers.

Maybe it’s time to go back to the future. Lease or sell the yard to McColl again and let him have another go at joining the dots between what Scottish island communities need and the work Scottish shipbuilding towns require.

It’s not rocket science but part of keeping an industrial base in our country, especially when skilled work is being lost in the North Sea and at Grangemouth.

McColl has a track record of success in his business ventures – the failings at Ferguson Marine fundamentally rest with others – and, most importantly, he has a vision of what we need for our country and communities.

What was right before remains so today. We need ferries, we need shipbuilding, and we need an industrial base not just to be a theme park or cruise liner destination.

Sort out the management but save the yard.

[This Article was first published by The National on 26.05.25]