Corran ferry crisis

I live and run a small business in Ardgour.

 

The loss of our lifeline ferry on Good Friday was, surely, a predictable and avoidable disaster, the blame for which lies with Highland Council.

 

Businesses have a duty to assess and mitigate risk. If an aging piece of equipment in our brewery threatens the safety of staff or the production of beer, we look at the likelihood of failure and the impact that failure would have. We buy (or at least source) a spare part ready to swap out when needed. We put in place safety rules for working with the failing pump or heating element to protect our people.

 

The council, by contrast, clearly had no such plans for the welfare of the peninsulas they purport to serve: a 48- year-old piece of mechanical equipment which is run hard for 15 hours a day is highly likely to fail. When it did so last Friday, hospitality businesses watched as their perishable stock due to be sold to Easter holidaymakers rotted, previously sold rooms remained empty and booked activities did not happen.

 

The council’s response was to apologise that they weren’t able to start looking into the problem until after the holiday weekend. The government’s response was that it was nothing to do with them – ask the council.

 

A few weeks ago, an elderly man collapsed during a funeral. The ferry crew and police sprang into action, prioritising the paramedic services to get emergency help to him. His life was saved by the ferry. Had the random event occurred yesterday, he would most probably be dead.

 

Running a ferry service is not easy – crew and management need the support of a commissioning body which anticipates problems, offers solutions and mitigates impacts: they (and we) do not have this from Highland Council, I fear.

 

There are plenty of boats around to provide a passenger service at an hour’s notice, plenty of private hire coaches around to shuttle to Fort William and Glencoe. Train companies do these things very quicky when their equipment fails – why don’t Highland Council?

 

Our communities need actions, not apologies.

 

Some suggestions:

 

1. Work with supermarkets to buy extra capacity to get food delivered to people cut off from their supply routes.

 

2. Liaise with air ambulance to fund availability to get medical help to the next person who cardiac arrests in Kingairloch or Conaglen in time.

 

3. Sort a passenger service now – not in three weeks time. It can be done.

 

4. Sort your emergency response systems so that you never again leave vulnerable people and fragile economies at unacceptable risk. Bad things happen during bank holiday weekends as well.

 

5. Publish plans this week to compensate farmers for the newborn lambs who are being lost because of the traffic being pumped round the A861, tourism businesses for their lost trade, shoppers for their additional fuel costs etc. This is your fault, not ours.

 

6. If you can’t run the ferry service well, outsource it to someone who can. Our crew members deserve better than to work a long shift in an ill-equipped and inadequate vessel.

 

People on the peninsulas are angry and frightened right now. Government response so far has been insulting. Let’s get it sorted before businesses and people die.