Cowal

Part of the debate – in the Scottish Parliament at 5:01 pm on 1 September 1999.

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Photo of Duncan Hamilton Duncan Hamilton Scottish National Party 5:01, 1 September 1999

The real problem in the Cowal economy is not caused by the leftovers of the removal of the US naval base. It is caused by real, current economic problems. Phil Gallie represents a party-he represented it in the Westminster Parliament, too-that has not served Argyll and Bute well and has not served the Cowal peninsula well. A lot of the problems go back to a lack of investment at a much earlier stage. I look forward to the regeneration of the Tory party in terms of a base of ideas for positive thinking. It is not enough to tell the SNP that, because we took a principled stance against nuclear weapons, we are responsible for the current plight of the Cowal economy. We have to do a bit better than that, Mr Gallie.

The key to the problem is the rebuilding of Dunoon pier, which will be more memorable to many older members in terms of trips doon the watter than it is to me. That experience is not really open to people of our generation-I say that to the deputy minister. The problem is largely that the pier is falling down. According to the report commissioned by the Argyll and Bute Council transport and property chiefs, it is unsafe: 40-tonne lorries cannot disembark on the pier and, unless there is massive investment-initially about £50,000 to patch it up as an interim measure-17-tonne vehicles will not be able to use it either. That is not good enough for business, given that we are looking at rebuilding the area and providing a quality transport link.

We are in a catch-22 situation because, until we get funding for the pier, which the cash-strapped council is in no position to give, Caledonian MacBrayne cannot guarantee the ferry link. Moreover, until the Deloitte & Touche report into the maintenance of the link between Gourock and Dunoon is published, the council cannot ask for money for the pier. We must have an early resolution of that problem. It is important that we see the matter as an integrated transport problem. This is not just about building the pier because it looks nice; a rebuilt pier will be the driver for growth in the area.

Professor Neil Kay is the foremost expert on the ferry routes in the area and on the need for regeneration and how we achieve it. He wrote in the Dunoon Observer and Argyllshire Standard, which I mentioned earlier:

"There are two things to bear in mind as far as Dunoon pier is concerned. It is an integral part of the public transport system-buses and trains-which is now Government policy. That wasn't the case when the Deloitte and Touche report was commissioned. Secondly, the cross-Clyde run is similar to the Forth bridges in terms of being a transport link across a major estuary . . . it is a mistake to say the pier is just for Dunoon. The pier has symbolic importance but it is much more than that-it is actually part of a major transport route."

I ask members to view the problem in its proper environment.

However, when discussing the ferries, we need to consider the history of the Deloitte & Touche report. We have been waiting for well over a year since the leaked version of the report was published to find out what is going on. The Minister for Transport and the Environment simply refuses to give any indication of when that report will be available, and in the meantime the axe hangs over the CalMac ferry route into Dunoon pier. That is not good enough.

In a written answer last week the minister told me that the report would be published "soon". I am afraid that soon has been a very long time. It is about time that we saw this report, so that we can end the uncertainty. When the Deputy Minister for the Highlands and Islands and Gaelic comes to respond, I would welcome some indication-perhaps even a date-of when we will be able to see it. The report affects so many lives and so many livelihoods that there are no grounds for concealing it any longer.

We must also bear in mind the fact that there are two ferry routes in this area; some members may not be aware of that. One is run by Western Ferries, and one by Caledonian MacBrayne. Local people want us to move away from the idea that only one or other of those routes can be maintained. We want the CalMac route to be maintained and have no problem with the maintenance of the Western Ferries route. We want to avoid monopoly pricing and a situation in which Western Ferries, which handles a substantial amount of traffic, is able to charge through the nose for that. We do not want private business to be run out. I do not see why it is impossible for the Government to put fair competition at the heart of its strategy. The restrictions under which CalMac operates at the moment mean that we have far from fair competition.

It is important to recognise that Western Ferries deals largely with the lucrative end of the market-vehicle traffic. However, its passenger safety provisions are not to anything like the same standard as CalMac's. It has a different form of craft, and the Western Ferries port is way out of town. Professor Kay has estimated that the impact on Dunoon of traffic simply passing through on its way up the peninsula, without attempting to stop in the town, would be enormously detrimental to the whole peninsula. We have to examine this issue in terms of economic regeneration.

It is also important to recognise that, even if we were to get rid of CalMac tomorrow, Western Ferries does not have the capacity, in terms either of craft or of current facilities, to deal with all the traffic. That is a logistical fact.

Above all, if we want to regenerate the area, we must think about the impact on business. Again, I come back to Professor Kay, who is assuming a somewhat legendary status! He says something very interesting from a business perspective. When he was asked what he thought the current climate would mean for a business, he replied:

"You can't really begin to talk about the future of the community until you have established a secure transport base.

If I were a firm looking at locating over here I would just look at the uncertainty over transport that has existed here for some years.

That would worry me because if it did come down to one transport operator then how are prices to be regulated? There is no regulatory structure in place for dealing with that."

That, in a nutshell, is the argument against a monopoly. It is why we need not only the maintenance, with additional Government money, of Dunoon pier, but an early commitment to the CalMac route to Gourock, to fair competition between the thriving Western Ferries and the vital service provided by CalMac, and to the crucial and traditional Dunoon pier.