South Uist islanders get a free lift to Oban cutting their travel time and effort to Glasgow but John Daniel Peteranna is still not happy and tells a big fat lie about the extra crossing time, unchecked by BBC Scotland

Image – Paul English, Sunday Post
Mallaig to Glasgow
Oban to Glasgow

Professor John Robertson OBA

Thanks to Bob Lamont for alerting me to this.

From BBC Scotland today:

South Uist has been under particular pressure recently as state-owned ferry operator CalMac struggles with a shortage of ships while it awaits replacements for its ageing fleet. Winter maintenance has uncovered new problems with several vessels, forcing CalMac to rejig its schedules and move ferries onto different routes.

Instead of sailing to Mallaig, it travels to Oban, 85 miles away from the normal scheduled port, which adds more than four hours to the crossing time. John Daniel Peteranna, from the South Uist Business Group which is hosting what it calls a “ferry crisis summit”, said the island’s economic potential in areas like seafood, distilleries and tourism was being stifled.

https://archive.ph/2025.04.15-060726/https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/crkxzx7kn5mo#selection-715.0-715.217

What’s really happening is that the South Uist islanders are getting a free, relaxing, safer, lift closer to the big town of Oban with its major fish markets and then cutting more than 50 miles off the road journey to Glasgow.

Are they happy? Well, we don’t actually know because no one has ever done a survey. We just get the likes of John Daniel Peteranna to tell us there’s a crisis.

The South Uist to Oban ferry takes 5hrs and 30mins. The South Uist to Mallaig ferry takes 3hrs and 30mins. It takes two hours more to sail to Oban relieving you of the tortuous 2 hour plus drive.

Peteranna’s claim of more than 4 hours added, is big fat lie. BBC Scotland do not check, of course.

https://www.calmac.co.uk/en-gb/route-information/mallaigoban-lochboisdale/#/

Who is Peteranna?

Director of 11 companies – https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/officers/455BvQaw8dSdgcqcHB8xXof2nd4/appointments

33 thoughts on “South Uist islanders get a free lift to Oban cutting their travel time and effort to Glasgow but John Daniel Peteranna is still not happy and tells a big fat lie about the extra crossing time, unchecked by BBC Scotland”

  1. This continual ferry nonsense tends to get on one’s wick. It wouldn’t be so bad if ferry problems UK wide were reported with such forensic precision.

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    1. What gets me is that in all the noise and fury written or broadcast about the ferries there is rarely any mention of the Road Equivalent Tariff (RET) and the positive impact it has had for those who live on the islands and for visitor numbers to the islands.

      A few years ago we went to the Outer Hebrides. We stayed on South Uist and travelled around the other islands from there. We sailed from Oban to Lochboisdale where we were going to stay. The thought of travelling to Mallaig and then to the islands was quickly dismissed.

      The RET had just come in for that journey from Oban. The islanders were not sure what difference it would make. A few short years later friends, plus campervan attracted by the reduction in fares, went to South Uist then north to Harris & Lewis. They were impressed by the new campsites they found on the islands. Clearly visitor numbers had increased and warranted investment in new facilities.

      Other friends regularly go island hopping each year again thanks to the RET.

      But of course that never rates a mention does it. Another thing that does not rate a mention is the damage done by the constant reference to ‘crisis’ hit ferries which leads to the perception that travel to the islands is difficult if not impossible which won’t do their tourism industry much good.

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      1. Probably the only ones aware of this are people who actually live there and those use the ferries to visit the islands. I had never heard of it before now. An interesting post and one I’d like to copy and share with your permission.

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    1. Arrant nonsense – whether he is or not is his business, but I can assure you that members and supporters of all parties in South Uist are fed up with the way in which Calmac dumps their problems with the network on their heads!

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  3. If you look closely at these companies you will see that Mr Peteranna is heavily embedded in the Uist community and economy. He reflects the absolute frustration of many at the extent to which South Uist has been at the hard end of this ferry crisis. Many people who might think of travelling to South Uist will think twice about planning their summer holidays around such an unreliable service.

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    1. Given the constant and mostly unwarranted negative publicity directed at Calmac I’m surprised anyone uses ferries because the inference is that there is hardly any ferry service at all and what there is, is totally unreliable, served by ancient ships that break down almost every day.

      Makes one wonder how the ferry users would take to privately run ferries where profits come first.

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    2. ” If you look closely at these companies you will see that Mr Peteranna is heavily embedded in the Uist community and economy ” – Defoe did the same, what’s your point John Daniel ?

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    1. Simply use an alias such as John Daniel Peteranna et al…. But take your point it’s best to ignore total arseholes with a political agenda…

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  5. That’s the second time I’ve seen that surname today – the first being an email address for a commercial archaeology company.

    Not anonymous

    deelsdugs

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  6. I’m very concerned that 6 of the companies he is director of all started Sept 2024 and all energy sounding companies, why would you start 6 companies on the same day? Out of the 11 in Companies House he has resigned/dissolved 2 of them so only 9 he is director of. Interesting

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    1. Maybe to make himself feel important? “I’m a director of nine companies, don’t you know”. “Now about those start up grants”..

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  7. RET, RET now where did I hear about Road Equivalent Tarriffs recently? Hmm. Oh, I remember, Sat 12th April 2025. There was a BBC Alba programme about Gaelic current affairs from 1975.  One newspaper round up was the Scottish Office / islanders discussions about ferries – and which routes should be included in a road equivalent tariff for ferry charges to be implemented by the UK WESTMINSTER GOVERNMENT

    50, FIFTY, years ago UK WESTMINSTER GOVERNMENT was going to implement Road Equivalent Tarriifs.

    In 2008, after 33, thirty three, years of Labour and Tory UK Westminster governments constipation, the recently elected SNP Scottish Government trialled, then rolled out Road Equivalent Tarriffs.

    1975 to … 2008, 33 years of prevarication, whilst London boomed on the Scottish oil bonanza……..

    In the 17 years since the Scottish Government introduced RET, islanders , their families, businesses, tourism, reunions, have all benefitted from the Scottish government delivering RET.

    An independent Scotland can choose to support Scotland. No one else has ever done that except as an afterthought.

    Dottieb

    Just took the decades and an SNP Scottish government to deliver.  One to through back

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  10. As one of the former Anonymous posters on this topic, I would like to comment further.

    From its opening salvo to the end of the comments, this is the most disappointing post I have seen on TUS.

    It started badly, with the “South Uist islanders get a free lift to Oban” nonsensical headline. Are islanders not supposed to expect a decent, reliable, and predictable ferry service? Should they get used to one that might take them to Mallaig, possibly to Oban, or maybe, just for variety, it will not turn up at all!

    The impression from the post and the comments is that people associated with this blog wish the islanders would just disappear. Perhaps Calmac could be prevaled upon to run a St Kilda style operation and take them off, never to return

    People might not like what Mr Peteranna said, or how it was presented in the press, but to turn that into an excuse for a pile-on makes this blog look just like the mainstream media it is supposed to be holding to account.

    Some of the comments are puerile:

    His name is not an alias, otherwise how come he is a named Director of so many companies, most of which are community-based.

    His name may be ‘foreign-sounding’ but to equate him with the English spy Daniel Defoe shows an amazing level of xenophobia coupled with ignorance and an inability to even use Google. Yes, the Petarannas are incomers to South Uist – the first one came in the mid-18th century off a Spanish boat, and they have been in Uist ever since.

    The companies that he joined in September 2024 did not just start then, and they are not his companies. They are the means by which the residents of South Uist and some of their neighbours control their own islands thanks to land reform legislation and the support of the Scottish Government. I thought the Yes movement was in favour of booting out absentee landlords.

    Stòras Uibhist / Sealladh na Beinne Mòire, community owned estate, South Uist – Tasglann nan Eilean Siar

    Perhaps TUS should take its own advice to the MSM and lay off the ferries for a while, or at least lay off the ordinary islanders who have experienced a fantastic level of disruption and disadvantage as the results of years of mismanagement of the ferry services have come home to roost.

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    2. ” The impression from the post and the comments is that people associated with this blog wish the islanders would just disappear ” – You refer to comment by others as being puerile, then come out with that ridiculous nonsense ?

      The BBC’s ” Minister to attend ‘crisis’ meeting on Uist ferries ” was a contrivance, now modified with a new title ” Funding for new ferry promised at ‘crisis’ meeting ” to infer yet another false linkage – Were Mr Peteranna not a political agitator feeding Pacific Quay material from which to continue their long running propaganda campaign, and were he not linked to a business community seizing any opportunity to slag off SG and Calmac in the media, he might well deserve some credibility.

      The community buyout 19 years ago would not have happened were it not for SG, keeping Calmac going would not have happened, keeping fares low would not have happened, and undoubtedly the population of the islands would have continued to fall.

      Crisis ? What crisis ? A crisis of credibility.

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      1. A basic rule of politics is that good things you did back in the day are quickly forgotten if you screw up today!

        As to my comment being puerile, how would you respond to this, “If it is so bad why do they live there?” The answer to the question of course is that most of them were bluidy born there! So much for Scotland valuing its island and Gaelic communities!

        And, let’s remember, the islanders didn’t design the ferry services, didn’t make interoperability of vessels difficult, didn’t let the fleet age and decay, and didn’t screw up a major procurement exercise for replacements!

        I fully support the aims of TUS, including financially, but I draw the line when we start attacking the communities who are simply campaigning, as they are entitled to do.

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  11. You eloquently demonstrate my point that this is all political with ” And, let’s remember, the islanders didn’t design the ferry services, didn’t make interoperability of vessels difficult, didn’t let the fleet age and decay, and didn’t screw up a major procurement exercise for replacements! “

    Perhaps let’s put this “campaigning” as you call it into perspective – S.Uist was served by steamers from Glasgow, Oban and other west coast ports in Loch Eynort, later moved south to Lochboisdale, continuing into the 1950s – In those days, there were no hyperbolic claims, the ferry came when it came.

    Review of the 10 year plan for ferries to the isles in 2012 concluded with respect to Lochboisdale that ” There is insufficient demand to make a stand alone route – with its own vessel – viable under the RET system and that sharing a vessel with another route – almost certainly Barra would be detrimental to that islands service “

    And yet what you refer to as “..the communities who are simply campaigning, as they are entitled to do”, ignores all that to promote it as a SG or Calmac problem ? These purported business people are agitating to make a loss making demand on SG and Calmac for what ? – Could it have anything to do with ‘Lochboisdale Development Limited having opened a new harbour on the small island of Gasaigh about 1 km from the village reached by two causeways. ‘, to which board director Mr John Daniel Peteranna was appointed in September 2024 ?

    Eau de Latrine, made in London…

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  12. He could always, along with his good friend from North Uist, Fergus Leveson-Gower, 6th Earl Granville and the Earls’ godmothers son King Charles with his brother Niall Leveson-Gower who owns and runs Langass Lodge, a shooting, stalking and hunting estate Shooting and Stalking | Langass Lodge  also on  North Uist, with prices being anywhere between  £2075 and £7475 per week for the ‘elite rich’ and all being able to easily afford it, buy a ferry of their very own. 

    Here is a couple of links for them…Ferry for sale and “For Sale: Further Price Reduction – Don’t miss this last chance!!”…. Boats for sale UK, boats for sale, used boat sales, Commercial Vessels For Sale Further Price Reduction – Don’t miss this last chance!! – Apollo Duck

    Or do their guests just get a helicopter over from Balmoral?

    JB

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    1. Ooft, you’ll be getting the Defoes bouncing up and down about that one…

      The opening quote laid it bare, ” And, let’s remember, the islanders didn’t design the ferry services, didn’t make interoperability of vessels difficult, didn’t let the fleet age and decay, and didn’t screw up a major procurement exercise for replacements! “.

      In order

      • It has always been a private service, the fact that SG rescued Calmac was likely gratefully received by every islander, but you’d never know it from this SiU evolution.
      • Interoperability of vessels was never the problem, Lochboisdale was.
      • As has been exampled umpteen times before on this blog, this is not an old fleet by any measure, and some sold on vessels are still providing sterling service at greater age than John Daniel Peteranna, who would have decayed far more far faster on land than a steel plate out in the elements of the north Atlantic.
      • This is the origins of this propaganda war, yet for any who know anything about contract law, only the parties to the Contract are involved to the exclusion of all others under penalty of law – Even when SG ‘nationalised’ FMEL, the contract remained between the two parties, but hell hath no fury than an already rich man’s further enrichment spoiled….

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      1. Totally confused by this post – what private service that was rescued by the Scottish Government are you talking about? Calmac hasn’t been a private company for over 50 years, it is wholly owned by the state, specifically the Scottish Government. The level of ignorance displayed by a number of commenters on this post simply demonstrate the continuing animosity of mainlanders to Scotland’s island and Gaelic communities.

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        1. You’re not confused at all – It has always been a private service in that it operated arm’s length from government – Most all state owned companies do, but it only in Scotland did nationalisation become an issue when a specific political party gained prominence.

          SG only came into existence 12th July 1999, but nationalisation only became an issue after SNP gained majority in 2011, before then nada – Famines were unheard of on S.Uist before Brexit, do you think there may be a connection ?

          Yet the propaganda really took off when FMEL was nationalised in 2019, and the business community have been ‘at it’ ever since.

          It’s absolutely NOT ‘continuing animosity of mainlanders to Scotland’s island and Gaelic communities’ but increasing animosity toward a poison pen cabal in the business sector who have the ear of a less than ‘impartial’ media

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  13. Lochboisdale to Mallaig Ferry Terminal via Oban Ferry Terminal is 4hrs longer than Lochboisdale to Mallaig direct.

    What makes you think everybody wants to travel to Glasgow?

    Please stop being such a twat when discussing the ferries. You’re as bad as The Herald; probably worse.

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