Professor John Robertson OBA, Island Cycling Correspondent of the Year
CalMac‘s Largs to Cumbrae (pop 1 500) and back service, 52 crossings, peak, and 33 off peak, each way with 15 min turnaround:
https://www.calmac.co.uk/en-gb/route-information/largs-cumbrae-slip-millport/#/
The proposal based on safety grounds, is to make the turnaround 20 mins thus reducing the number of crossings by 25% to 39 and 25 crossings per day with the bigger MV loch Shira – 36 cars and 250 passengers.
In 2024, the crossing served 700 00 passengers, 195 000 cars, 795 buses and 5 600 commercial vehicles:
So averaging the peak and off-peak service to 40 each way, 80 per day, over 365 days, is around 29 000 crossings.
In those crossings, the Loch Shira could take 7.2 million passengers but only had 700 000, one tenth capacity. She could have taken 1 million cars but only took just over 200 000 (I know buses and lorries are bigger but there were very few of those), one fifth capacity.
I know there are long queues on a few sunny weekends and holidays but quite a few of those car drivers, to my mind, should be using the island buses, their feet and bottoms on bicycles seats, on those days, to get around this tiny place.
And no fn SUVs forcing the cyclists into the gutter!
Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 
The island bus fare is not included in the ferry ticket, which might make a difference to some passengers who arrive using the Glasgow Largs rail service.
In addition, many people visit Millport flats as weekend retreats: most are studio, 1 and 2 bed apartments which will have assorted family stuff and provisions.
The many cycling visitors don’t require a bus ticket, either.
The bigger problem has been residents and service vehicles stuck trying to make appointments in the queues: N Ayrshire Council provided a second lane for them, but CalMac have decided not to engage this.
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Absolutely spot on again Prof. No forcing cyclists into the gutter.
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The above BBC questionnaire is heavily constrained. Only the last – open – question supplies the opportunity to let rip.
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Spot on
i am well fed up with islanders on the BBC and Herald whining.
I would suggest charging the market rate for their ticket, that will have them blowing the froth off their latte
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Thats another reas
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Great Cumbrae needs a tourist tax on vehicles, related to size.
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Uist
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O/T Representatives of the social care sector in the UK are across the mainstream media today (May 12) reacting – usually negatively – to the changes to migration policy just announced by the British Labour Party (aka ‘Labour in Name Only’) government in Westminster.
The UK page of the BBC News website (May 12) has this headline: ‘Care providers say overseas worker crackdown ‘short-sighted’.
The ‘short-sighted’ claim can be found in a statement the BBC quotes from Prof Peter Green of Care England, which describes itself as the largest representative body for independent care providers: “Taking (international recruitment) away now with no warning, no funding, and no alternative, is not just short-sighted – it’s cruel.”
As an aside, I wonder if a BBC Scotland article reporting such a criticism – but of the present Scottish Government – could have resisted using ‘it’s cruel’ in the headline rather than the milder ‘short-sighted’ ?
The BBC News website’s Scotland section on the implications of the British Labour Party’s restrictions for the care sector in Scotland has this headline: ‘Care system will suffer under UK immigration plan – Forbes.’
I looked in vain in this BBC Scotland piece for a quote from Scottish Care and its media savvy CEO, Donald Macaskall. Dr Macaskall after all has been frequently and extensively quoted by BBC Scotland when he is critical of the Scottish Government. And it’s not as if Scottish Care has failed to issue a press statement on the British Labour Party government’s intentions. It has! In it Dr Macaskill states:
“The UK Government’s direction of travel on immigration continues to reflect a hostile and dehumanising culture that fundamentally contradicts the values of compassion and care that underpin our sector in Scotland.’ (my emphasis)
‘The potential ending of the social care visa route would not only be irresponsible, but it would also be reckless. It would put lives, services, and whole communities at risk.
‘Scotland needs a workforce immigration policy that is fair, humane, and rooted in the needs of our population, not driven by political headlines or populist sentiment. Anything less fails the people of Scotland.”
On reading that, one could readily imagine BBC Scotland’s news editors choosing NOT to quote from it, NOT to amplify these views, even though it comes from a previously go-to source for the BBC in Scotland. I wonder if media savvy Scottish Care has had its damning press statement on British Labour’s new migration policy covered by the Daily Record, The Herald, The Scotsman etc.? Anyone know?
Dr Macaskill (February 24, 2024) wrote a substantial, hard-hitting piece for the Scottish Care website entitled: ‘Hospitality instead of hostility: a social care approach to immigration’:
‘‘I have written and spoken a lot about the need for an immigration approach which is sensitive to the uniqueness of the Scottish demographic and the reality that we have such a high level of demand in our health and social care systems. I do not necessarily want to underline those points here because in a sense you either accept or reject the argument that social care organisations are unable to recruit and retain staff at sustainable levels- despite all the measures they have taken including terms and conditions which are better than anywhere in the UK – although still not good enough.’’
Whilst under a right-wing Tory government, Dr Macaskill added: ‘What I want briefly to reflect on today is the hostile nature of the UK Government’s approach to immigration which is doing untold damage to the image of our communities and the sustainability of social care organisations, and in turn is directly affecting the lives and welfare of our fellow citizens. I do not think it is hyperbole to state that the logical conclusion to such a hostile environment is the unnecessary harm and potential deaths of citizens who require social care support. If there are not enough care workers, then people are at real risk.
‘The statements and invective from the UK Government are creating a toxic environment in which international recruiters of skilled nurses and care staff are already telling me that people across the world are being put off from even considering coming to Scotland because it is perceived that they – and certainly their families – are not welcome and are not wanted. We seem to be sending a message which on the one hand is saying ‘Come and work in our services and supports, in our hospitals and care homes, in our communities and help us be healthy and well… but do not even consider bringing your own families and being well and whole and healthy in your own mind and body. ‘We need you; we want you, but we will use you.’
Adding: ‘The commoditisation of people by a hostile immigration policy is a shaming of our shared humanity and politicians appealing for votes are plumbing the lowest common denominator by their actions. What does it say to our contemporary society that those who care for others should not have due care and attention given to their own needs? – and for many that means being with family, creating a space to belong, becoming rooted as our neighbours and becoming our fellow Scots.’
The nature of Dr Macaskill’s remarks today on British Labour Party intentions and those he made back in February 2024 when there was Tory rule in Westminster seem all too similar!
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The BBC Scotland article https://archive.ph/9T117 quotes from Kilgour with no reference to government, Campbell Mair “called on both the UK and Scottish governments to invest more in the sector”.
The inevitable “Analysis” by Glenn Campbell ignores the London led immigration policy with the headline damage to the care sector, in preference to making it about political positioning at Holyrood –
“There has long been a political consensus at Holyrood that immigration is good for our economy and society.
It is possible that may become more strained as some parties come under electoral pressure from Reform UK which wants a dramatic reduction in immigration.
The Scottish Conservatives are already backing the removal of social care visas.
Both the Tories and Scottish Labour argue that the Scottish government needs to do more to make these jobs more attractive to those who already live here”
So Glenn chooses again to ignore the bleeding obvious – The Tories are toast, Labour are following suit, and Reform UK despite heavy promotion by the BBC and a Councillor haven’t managed to strain a teabag….
Is it not obvious the McSweeney media machine has steered the discussion to the care sector in isolation, none of the other low paid sectors reliant on immigrant workers, at exactly the point agriculture sector is looking to arrange thousands of seasonal workers for everything from planting to picking fruit ?
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By way of follow-up, the National article… https://archive.ph/QIufZ
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As someone who depends on care assistants to care for my wife, she is bedbound with later stage dementia, I am apoplectic about this decision taken by a Labour, Labour? Government. For years we have had carers, all from either Africa, or the Indian sub-continent. and they do a marvellous job of work. I don’t know their wage rate, but they work very long hours, always cheery, and never complain. So if they are withdrawn, what do I do because obviously I cannot cope on my own. Apart from anything else I am 85yrs of age, and not fully fit, cancer/heart condition, myself. So what happens? And all this an attempt, as others have said, to imitate Farage, and his gang of lunatics. It won’t work. Labour, I hope are finished, along with the Tories, for good. The trouble is, since we are still under Westminster’s boot, the alternative is even worse.
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