Public Meeting on Clydeport and Maersk ships in Loch Striven

This public meeting – on 19th March – was called by petition from the residents of South Cowal and, with scant attention from some of the senior invitees, it became not a dispirited session but evidence of a well informed local community capable of looking after itself. You could call it ‘people power’ and it was invigorating to witness. This is a community that will press fort action.

The evening was also encouraging in being an occasion where people and Council were in sympathy, mutually respectful and focused. Things could be like this much more often if both sides created some space to allow it to do so. There is nothing more potent than moving forwards together.

With independent-thinking participants from Loch Striven, the Glen Striven Estate and the wider South Cowal community, things got down to business promptly. Tony Miles, Chair of South Cowal Community Council, chaired the meeting, with Alan Reid, Argyll and Bute’s MP and Dick Walsh, Leader of Argyll and Bute Council, who had relevant members of the Council staff with him, particularly an Environmental Health specialist.

Consistent with corporate behaviour which has been worse than mannerless from the outset, Clydeport had not replied to the invitation to attend.

Maersk were sending a technical expert and the skipper of their raft of 6 container ships in Loch Striven, Captain David Johnstone.

In the event, it was a no-show. An apology had been received earlier explaining that Captain Johnstone was unable to leave the raft because of weather conditions and, with worse to come, a fear that if he left the ships he might not be able to get back aboard later.

The technical guy was driving up from Newcastle and was planning to stay on the ships that night, so the same risk applied to him. He was said to have been phoned and turned around mid-journey.

It has to be reported that this news brought laughs all round. Many of those present were local to Loch Striven and the rest to the Clyde. The wind was in the west, sheltering Loch Striven, which was described as ‘a sheet of glass’ by those who had just driven from there round the point to Toward.

And the absence of the Maersk representatives was unfortunate, beyond the PR damage it earned in consequence. Issues were raised, detailed below, some of which could possibly have been resolved on the spot but all of which will  now be pursued.

Clydeport’s specific statutory authority

Discussion on this subject took place within an understanding, confirmed by Alan Reid, that the statutory authority of Clydeport and its mode of operation now come fully within the remit of the powers devolved to the Scottish Government.

The damage was done at Westminster, in the peculiar manner in which Clydeport, as a private company, was enabled to acquire a statutory authority without any accountability beyond observation of the laws of the country. But, with devolution, this is now the responsibility of the Government and the Parliament at Holyrood.

Alan Reid, Dick Walsh and the community members present were unequivocal in their view that this situation does indeed create an unacceptable democratic deficit and requires to be addressed.

Alan Reid read out a letter he had had, quite early on, from Margaret Mackay, Clydeport’s Managing Director. (This was published as one of the documents within our archival ‘Rolling Story’  on the Loch Striven situation). It was and remains stupendously rude, dismissive and arrogant in a way that could  not underline more clearly the need to introduce legislation to pull back the extent of Clydeport’s unaccountability. Government Ministers, MPs and MSPs are – expressly – no more than a nuisance to Ms Mackay.

Dick Walsh, as Council Leader, informed the meeting that Argyll and Bute Council, as the responsible local authority, had done all it could to get Clydeport to come to a ‘closed’ business meeting of the Council so that together they might discuss the issues. (A ‘closed’ meeting means that neither members of the public nor the media are present.) Clydeport, however, in Councillor Walsh’s careful words, ‘showed no interest whatsoever’ in coming to such a meeting – nor did they do so.

It was further felt that the ambition of Clydeport’s immediate parent company, Peel Ports, to buy Forth Ports – owners of, among others, the ports of Leith, Grangemouth and Dundee on the east coast of Scotland’s Central Belt – was a matter of serious public concern. As we have reported, a consortium Peel Ports is leading, Northstream, is now a hostile bidder for Forth.

Were this bid to succeed, it would leave Scotland, literally, with its neck in a stranglehold, held by a company whose corporate behaviour has been reprehensible in disdaining common courtesy and notions of corporate social responsibility alike.

The unanimous decision of the meeting was that the matter of Clydeport’s unaccountable statutory authority would be referred to the Scottish Government for the necessary legislative revision and that lobbying of MSP’s of all parties would be undertaken to build a cross-party consensus on the need for change.

The boundaries of Clydeport’s authority

Alan Reid and Dick Walsh individually painted a picture of the Clyde shipping world obtaining when the boundaries of the original Clyde Port Authority were drawn – and is today very different.

The volume of commercial shipping was very much greater then, with fleets of small inshore coasters and larger ocean going cargo ships and passenger liners all using the Clyde waterway, alongside warships, convoys, newly constructed ships undergoing sea trials and passenger ferries.

Tonnages were also rising.

Since those days, the world of shipping freight has become containerised and has moved to the use of fewer and very much larger ships. So shipping movements are a lot fewer than was formerly the case.

The great shipbuilding yards of the Clyde have been decimated and many of the ferries have gone.

Clydeport’s tonnages have been in steady decline.

This picture no longer supports the granting of authority to Clydeport over so much of the Firth of Clyde itself, including its sea lochs.

It was again unanimously agreed by all present that this matter too would be referred to the Scottish Government, with the case made for redrawing the boundaries to reduce the area of Clydeport’s authority to an area consistent with today’s shipping patterns.

It was understood that this action – which would be included in a single instrument of  legislative revision – would involve the payment of a degree of reparation to Clydeport.

Clydeport’s and Peel Ports’ lack of a Corporate Social Responsibility Policy

The meeting agreed unanimously that it is no longer acceptable for large companies to run operations impinging on the lives of contingent communities without having in place and being seen to apply a policy of Corporate Social Responsibility (sometimes referred to as Corporate Citizenship).

It was noted that Clydeport’s distance from embodying a corporate culture of social responsibility was evident:

• in refusing to consult the local community at Loch Striven before sending in the Maersk ships;
• in instructing Maersk to anchor the ships in a specific place – of maximum negative  impact on the lives of the small local community, when several equally feasible alternatives were available in the loch;
• in engaging in underhand behaviour beforehand by sending in a Captain Guy Henderson, who presented himself to the managers of the Glen Striven Estate as wishing to survey Loch Striven from the estate in order to clarify health and safety issues relevant to a local yacht club. Captain Henderson was, in fact, working for Clydeport. His activities on the estate gave rise to suspicion because they were not consistent with his cover story. His purpose had in fact, been to survey where Clydeport might position the laid up ships to be of least economic impact on the Glen Striven estate, whose absentee owner’s voice would be more powerful in high places than the voices of the small community. He gave his card to Vicki Smith, the estate manager but has not, since then, been available to take her calls. She feels seriously compromised by this subversive action since, had she known who he really was, she would not have given him access to the estate.
• in refusing to talk to anyone at any level – from the community all the way to Government Ministers, during or since the progressive arrival of the six ships now rafted up in the loch;
• in persistent and contemptuous dismissal of elected representatives doing their jobs in trying to look after the welfare of their constituents in the South Cowal area.

It was agreed to draw to the attention of the Scottish Government to the need for companies operating in Scotland to have and employ a Corporate Social Responsibility policy.

New issues in respect of the impact of the Maersk ships in Loch Striven

Several potentially significant issues were raised, some hypothetical and some actual.

• The case of a major incident – like a fire – on the raft

The Council Leader was asked if he knew whether or not there was a contingency plan in place to respond to any emergency incident on the ships – such as a fire. He was also asked who would pay for such an operation, should it be needed.

Concerns around this issue relate to the time for the emergency services to get to the ships. It was suggested that Clydeport should, as a matter of course, be keeping fire tugs on close station in the event of such an incident. The time it would otherwise take for them to get to Loch Striven from their habitual stations would be too long.

For emergency motor vehicles, South Cowal’s narrow roads and the absence of hard standing collection points near the ships would slow access and hinder smooth operations under pressure.

Councillor Walsh said that the Council has its own general emergency incident contingency plans, although how far these included a scenario as exotic as the possibilities in Loch Striven is not clear.  In relation to who would pay, he said, wryly, that he supposed the Council would have to pay in the first instance and then spend the next 20 years wrangling over others’ responsibilties.

• Venting tanks on the six ships

Concerns were expressed that the safety and maintenance need to vent the tanks on the ships – and to vent those on six ships in close formation – might present an environmental hazard in the release of gases.

With no one present from Maersk to give a definitive answer on this matter, it will be channelled to Maersk through the Council’s Environmental Health department.

• The sudden absence of migratory fish

Anglers present, with a long history of fishing on the lochsides at Loch Striven, reported that since the arrival of the ships in the raft, there has been a severe decline in the number of migratory fish, principally sea trout.

The question of underwater disturbance to the species caused by a doppler effect of sound vibrations was raised. The Council’s Environmental Health specialist said that this was not an issue that had previously been raised but that the team would be prepared to look at the matter.

• The appearance of two dead porpoises washed up on the shores of Loch Striven

This has been an unusual occurrence in Loch Striven and there were concerns that the incidents might in some way be related to the presence of the ships. One of the mammals had been found near the NATO jetty at Port Lamont and the other further up the loch.

• Commercial impact on the business of Glen Striven Estate

One of the managers of the Glen Striven Estate pointed out that, as a sporting estate, one of their USPs is their remote rural location.

There are real concerns at the estate that when visitors arrive now and see the six container ships rafted up in the loch, that the industrial image they present contradicts the selling point of what is on offer at the estate.

• The efforts of Maersk on noise reduction from the ships on the raft

The Council’s Environmental Health specialist reported that Maersk had, quite early on, accepted responsibility for the noise pollution caused by the presence of the ships and had progressively worked to reduce it as far as possible.

She made it known that the latest development is that the company has found a way of keeping all six ships on tick over with the use of a single generator, rather than the two currently used.

When this system is introduced, it is likely to require a smaller crew on the raft which itself will mean a reduced need for power.

Conclusions

South Cowal Community Council is to lead on taking forward the actions agreed at the meeting, involving Argyll and Bute Council in the approaches to the Scottish Government.

Additional Information

For Argyll became aware of an odd coincidence in an article published online in Lloyd’s List on 1st March, which may have some bearing on the Maersk ships in Loch Striven.

It is known that the two smaller Maersk boxships, Maryland and Maine,  on warm layup in Greenock, are for sale and that there have been expressions of interest in them.

Then the article in Lloyd’s List announced that Horizon Line is to launch a fast weekly service from China to the west coast of America in December this year – using five 23 knot container ships.

The five young B-class Maersk ships in Loch Striven were actually built for a fast service from the Far East straight into the American east coast. They were to be the greyhounds of the ocean before the price of oil went through the roof – and since they emerged from the Stralsund yard that built them, they have never been sailed at their rated speed for economic reasons.

Their rated speed is 28 knots. That is no longer financially viable – but they would certainly do a 23 knot run in what Horizon is billing as a Premium Service.

We have asked Maersk if the B-class ships in Loch Striven are being sold to Horizon but have received no reply. We didn’t actually expect one as shipping companies play such things close to their chests – but one has to ask and the coincidence remains curious.

An end-of-year start to the new Horizon service would marry with the 18 month period of time Maersk have always said that their ships would be in Loch Striven – allowing for what the company says is the relatively short lag time to get them back up to operational capacity.

A sale would also save Maersk the cost of the major engineering revisions under consideration should the company keep these uneconomic ships. It would be sad to see them butchered to shorten their length – one of the options considered. An alien presence in Loch Striven they certainly are but their lines are quite beautiful.

Time will tell all.