Comhairle nan Eilean Siar welcome Re-deployment of MV Isle of Mull

Comhairle nan Eilean Siar has welcomed the news that MV Isle of Mull will be redeployed to cover the Little Minch services to Lochmaddy and Tarbert following the removal of service of MV Hebrides for repair in Greenock to the vessel’s CO2 Fire Fighting system on 2nd August.  

The communities of Harris and Uist suffered a net loss of capacity of 2,000 car spaces in the three days when MV Hebrides was out of service, causing severe impacts for island businesses and islander travel.  It is a relief that a vessel will be in place to provide mitigation in time for the busy weekend. 

Commenting on the news Chairman of Transportation and Infrastructure, Cllr Uisdean Robertson, said: “It was a great relief to hear that MV Isle of Mull will be redeployed to cover for MV Hebrides while repairs to our vessel continue in Greenock.  We recognise that the cost of this redeployment is a loss of capacity on routes to Mull and Skye and we are grateful to those communities for the understanding they have shown. This underlines the urgent need for investment in the ferry fleet to ensure that reliability is improved and to avoid the impact always being passed on to others. We understand there are no easy decisions for CalMac until such time as there is adequate investment in the fleet at their disposal.”