An island claims the Scottish Government has lost an opportunity to avert the possibility
of Caledonian MacBrayne ferry services being hived off to the private sector.
Cllr
Donald Crichton said the Scottish Government enthusiastically embraced the competitive
tendering option but could have sought a derogation from the EU that would have protected
the publicly run services.
He claims that in correspondence he has received from the office of the EU Commissioner
for Transport, Violeta Bulc, the Scottish Government did not take up the option of
seeking a derogation but followed the same route as the previous Scottish Executive
a decade ago.
He said: " The letter I received from the EU Commisioner's office confirms
that a derogation can be sought in such circumstances where a public authority exercises
control over the company that has the contract."
The letter from the EU Commission
states that an 'in-
It continues:
" While this has to be strictly interpreted and the burden of proof as regards the
existence of these circumstances lies on the Member State invoking the derogation."
Mr
Crichton said: "We have those circumstances now with the Scottish Government and
Caledonian Macbrayne yet they chose not to go for a derogation.
"The tendering process is now so far on that there is probably no turning back. This
only confirms what I believe to be the longstanding intention of the civil service
and Scottish Ministers to sell off our lifeline ferry services."
Cllr Crichton concluded:
"This could have avoided a prolonged tendering process and the unnecessary threat
of life line services being lost to the private sector where there will be less accountability
and more risk to jobs and services."
Ferry tendering was avoidable, says councillor
18 October 2015