In the best possible news for Dunoon, Transport Minister Stewart Stevenson MSP gave a public commitment to a combined vehicle and passenger service on the Dunoon / Gourock route in the Scottish Parliament last Thursday (28th October 2010)
Michael Russell, Cabinet Secretary for Education and the SNP Candidate for Argyll & Bute who, as a long-time resident of Cowal understands the importance of this service to the area, has welcomed the commitment given.
Responding to a question from a Labour member about the present tendering process, the Tran sport Minister said: ‘We are continuing to work with the European Commission on that very important service but, fundamentally, we seek to deliver for the people of the Cowal peninsula and Dunoon a service that carries both vehicles and passengers.
‘Every part of our effort is directed at ensuring that we give it the best possible opportunity’. ( Scottish Parliament Official Report, Thursday 28th October)
Mr Russell, who was present in the Parliamentary Chamber at the time, says: ‘This is a very welcome and very public assertion by the Transport Minister. It matches exactly what Jim Mather and I have been saying .
‘There is a full Government commitment to a vehicle and passenger service from town centre to town centre and everything is being done – despite European law and the present very difficult financial situation – to maintain that service.
‘Jim Mather and I will continue to work with the Transport Minister to ensure that such a service can be secured on a long term permanent footing and I hope we will have the support of entire community in that endeavor’.
This is exactly what Dunoon needs to plan its future with security. With the Argyll and Bute Council’s CHORD waterfront regeneration project finding and the Townscape Heritage Initiative funding, Dunoon, as a community, is now in a position to get moving to make work this opportunity to establish the basis for an energetic and well served future.
Unfortunately this is not a new development and it is far from ‘the best possible news for Dunoon’. For anyone to make such a claim is, frankly, ridiculous. Like Mr Stevenson’s commitment, there are many in Dunoon and Cowal who would see such a claim as empty words.
Mr Stevenson has made such a public commitment about the Dunoon-Gourock route on several occasions, dating back many months. His continued ‘commitments’ (all virtually identical in their wording) are wearing extremely thin in the absence of action – and, more importantly, in the absence of a tender specification. His department has been promising that this specification will be delivered ‘shortly’ – since spring of this year.
The people of Cowal have been hearing such ‘commitments’ for years (not only from the current political administration, of course) and now they need answers and action. And they are far from convinced that the answers they will receive and the action that will be taken will necessarily be ‘the best possible news for Dunoon’. Despite the repeated ‘commitments’ that Mr Stevenson and others continue to make, grave concerns about the route’s future remain.
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For Cailleach: We are cynics too, bred not born but one thing is certain: if Transport Minister, Stewart Stevenson, were even to try a stunt like that, his party would be finished in Argyll for a very long time.
Stevenson has been a weak and ineffective minister among a largely able team and his department has underperformed through lack of leadership.
His going to ground over the Dunoon-Gourock ferry issue – and taking the tender specification with him – has been immensely damaging to his colleague, Jim Mather, the current MSP for Argyll and Bute. Stevenson’s messing around with HIAL and the MoD over the premature and unnecessary contract replacement for Machrihanish airport at Campbeltown while the community were working to get a stable line on a business case to try to buy the site, was another source of damage to the respected Mather.
Our reading of the current situation is that Michael Russell, an incisive and decisive minister and who, as his party’s candidate for Argyll and Bute in May 2011 has a lot to lose on this, has got fed up with Stevenson and has cut off his retreat at the pass by loudly and publicly welcoming his statement to the Scottish Parliament.
The most effective thing Dunoon can do is celebrate the assurances given and energetically set about planning on the basis that they will have the promised vehicle/passenger ferry. And the best thing that fellow candidates can do for Dunoon is the same thing. Nail the Transport Minister and his party to that decision.
If there is widespread certainty that the Minister has spoken for the last time and the future is clear, it will be a braver man than Stevenson to defy that.
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“Fundamentally, we seek to deliver for the people of the Cowal peninsula and Dunoon a service that carries both vehicles and passengers.”
Take out ‘seek to’ and substitute ‘will’ – and THEN you have a commitment – assuming, of course, that you trust Mr Stevenson and believe that he is able or willing to carry it out -and that’s a very tall order indeed…..
As for European law – the supposed difficulties encountered in complying with European law were widely quoted by Jim Mather’s predecessor George Lyon, and he was derided by Mather and the SNP MEP Alyn Smith, both of whom argued that this was simply a smokescreen.
It seems that the smokescreen has not been dispersed by the wind generated by Mr Lyon’s successor.
As for the ‘very difficult financial situation’ – it didn’t exist when the promise of a passenger-vehicle service was made by the SNP – there was ample time for them to deliver on it before the effluent hit the air-conditioning.
You claim that ‘The most effective thing Dunoon can do is celebrate the assurances given and energetically set about planning on the basis that they will have the promised vehicle/passenger ferry.’
Aye, right.
Unless the ships turn up by magic before the election – and that’s as likely as a blizzard in Hell, since there is a strong suspicion among informed sources that there are no suitable vessels available – then I suspect that the SNP will indeed be finished in Argyll for a very long time.
Cailleach is spot-on given the track record of government on this issue, you are really very, very naive if you really believe that Stevenson is going to deliver on this.
You do yourself no favours by presenting this as a real step forward. Leave the press releases to the SNP’s press officer in future – it’s his job to spin stories in a positive light, but even he would struggle with this one.
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This is just a pious hope – NOT a commitment. A commitment would include tenders and, of course ships. When the Minister announces a date when a new , unrestricted vehicle and passenger service will commence at the Dunoon Linkspan then we can celebrate. We have had the assertions before. we still have not got the service. We were promised such a service at the last Scottish Election. All we have received are equivocation, assertions and excuses- no explanations and NO SHIPS. If someone owed you money for three years , would you “Celebrate the assurances given” If he now said that” he was continuing to work on the matter” and that fundamentally it was his policy to give payment the best possible opportunity? Would you plan future spending on the basis that he would pay? Or would you put the matter in the hands of your solicitor?
The public reaction should be simple – NO BOATS, NO VOTES!
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