Step forward, a quick and cheap way to cut ferry cancellations?

The Kilcreggan ferry doesn’t currently provide the reliable service that the Rosneath Peninsula needs, a meeting heard last week.

Any form of new docking facility is still several years away, but there are fears that in the meantime rising sea levels will continue to cause cancellations.

Cove and Kilcreggan Community Council heard last week that there had been 65 cancellations in December – this equates to almost one in five sailings.

But figures presented to the Scottish Parliament’s net zero, energy and transport committee today show that since CalMac took over the Kilcreggan route in 2020 6.4% of sailings have been cancelled – a lower figure than almost two-thirds of the operator’s routes.

Chairman Nick Davies said that the ferry service had previously been ‘dire’.

“We got through that, but it still isn’t great because of the cancellations that we get because of high tides and weather,” he said.

“It is not yet the reliable service that we want.

“This ferry is important not just to Cove and Kilcreggan but to the Rosneath Peninsula – to lose it would be a bit of a disaster.”

The community council agreed to investigate a more immediate solution, separately from the plans for entirely new infrastructure – but what form could that take?

It would be possible to adapt the current pier, which is B-listed and 125 years old, in order to reduce the number of cancellations.

Currently some of the fenders at the front of the pier is shorter than the others – if one of these was replaced or extended with a steel plate or timber section, ferries would be able to tie up higher than currently.

Then, to deal with the steepness of the gangway which can currently cancel sailings, a movable platform could be built to accommodate the gangway.

To take account of rising sea levels this would need to be no more than one metre high, fitted with steps, handrails on both sides and lockable casters – potentially made of galvanised steel.

As a movable structure it is highly unlikely that this would cause objections from Historic Environment Scotland – and the two changes put together would cost less than 5% of the cost of the ‘preferred option’.