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Displaying items by tag: Leadership Review

Caledonian MacBrayne's (CalMac) chief executive is stepping down as the Scottish state-owned ferry operator faces ongoing challenges with its aging fleet.

The ferry company announced on Wednesday (3 April) that Robbie Drummond is stepping down with immediate effect from the operator, which has the largest domestic fleet in UK waters.

The development comes just over a week after the Ferguson Marine shipyard of Port Glasgow, which is also state-owned, saw its chief executive, David Tydeman sacked by its board.

This departure comes after a review by the board of CalMac, the operator to west coast islands and across lochs, which is also wholly owned by the Scottish Government with parliament at Holywood, in the capital of Edinburgh.

In recent years, the aging nature of CalMac’s ferry fleet has led to major delays and widespread disruption across its extensive route network along the west coast.

Among the main issues is the ongoing ferry fiasco, costing the Scottish public a 'staggering' £1.3 million a week under ScotGov control.

The shipyard problems have been compounded by ongoing delays to two hybrid duel fuel powered ferries being built at the yard at Port Glasgow.

The twin ferries, Glen Sannox and Glen Rosa, will ultimately serve routes in the west of Scotland with CalMac, are some six years late as the lead ship was due to enter service in 2018.

The cost of both new builds is around three times that of the original price of £97 million.

More from the Herald Scotland on this latest ferry scene and the shipyard saga. 

Published in Ferry

Coastal Notes Coastal Notes covers a broad spectrum of stories, events and developments in which some can be quirky and local in nature, while other stories are of national importance and are on-going, but whatever they are about, they need to be told.

Stories can be diverse and they can be influential, albeit some are more subtle than others in nature, while other events can be immediately felt. No more so felt, is firstly to those living along the coastal rim and rural isolated communities. Here the impact poses is increased to those directly linked with the sea, where daily lives are made from earning an income ashore and within coastal waters.

The topics in Coastal Notes can also be about the rare finding of sea-life creatures, a historic shipwreck lost to the passage of time and which has yet many a secret to tell. A trawler's net caught hauling more than fish but cannon balls dating to the Napoleonic era.

Also focusing the attention of Coastal Notes, are the maritime museums which are of national importance to maintaining access and knowledge of historical exhibits for future generations.

Equally to keep an eye on the present day, with activities of existing and planned projects in the pipeline from the wind and wave renewables sector and those of the energy exploration industry.

In addition Coastal Notes has many more angles to cover, be it the weekend boat leisure user taking a sedate cruise off a long straight beach on the coast beach and making a friend with a feathered companion along the way.

In complete contrast is to those who harvest the sea, using small boats based in harbours where infrastructure and safety poses an issue, before they set off to ply their trade at the foot of our highest sea cliffs along the rugged wild western seaboard.

It's all there, as Coastal Notes tells the stories that are arguably as varied to the environment from which they came from and indeed which shape people's interaction with the surrounding environment that is the natural world and our relationship with the sea.