Committee
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee 20 September 2023
20 Sep 2023 · S6 · Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
Item of business
New Petitions
Clydeport (Public Ownership) (PE2029)
Thank you, convener. I have a personal interest in the petition. I have a background in the shipbuilding industry on the Clyde, working for BAE Systems, and I have maintained a long-standing interest in the development of the Clyde corridor as an industrial asset for the wider city region. I have had long-standing concerns about the port’s general long-term decline as a major port. That stems from ambitious plans that were launched around 20 years ago to develop Hunterston and Greenock as one of the major transatlantic trans-shipment terminals for containers coming across the Atlantic. At that time, huge investment was planned. Clydeport plc then merged with, or was purchased by, Peel Ports Group, which also owns the Mersey Docks and Harbour Company and has a major interest in the Mersey. That is another competing port on the west coast of Britain. Subsequently, huge investment—in the order of billions of pounds—has gone into developing the Liverpool 1 container terminal, and the focus of Peel Ports Group’s operations as a port authority has very much been on the Mersey at the expense of the Clyde. There is a general, long-standing concern that the Clyde has been in a pattern of managed decline and disinvestment over many years and that the focus has been very much on Merseyside, to the extent that, if people want pilotage on the River Clyde, they call a call centre on the Mersey to get access to it. The situation seems to me to be unacceptable on a number of fronts. Perhaps there are some parallels with previous inquiries into the management of airports in Scotland. There was an issue with one company managing both Glasgow airport and Edinburgh airport, and having a conflict of interest in that regard. There has not been any serious inquiry into, or study of, the potential long-term economic effects on the west of Scotland and the greater Glasgow city regions. There is, of course, a container terminal in Greenock, but it does not even feature in the top 10 British ports any more. It has been in decline for a long time. At one time, it was the fifth-biggest container port in the UK, but it no longer appears in the top 100 ports in Europe, for example. There is a major long-term concern. There is a high correlation between the level of freight traffic that comes through ports and levels of economic growth, so there is a yoke on the west of Scotland’s potential. We have recently seen the publication of population statistics and that the west of Scotland is in long-term decline. There is a broader issue that the Government really needs to pay more attention to. We need to have a serious ports policy and a policy for growing freight traffic through Scotland, ship movements and associated industries, such as the ship repair industry. To that end, the petitioner has made some serious and valid points. We should be guided by measurable outputs. What is the goal to grow the Clyde? What is the goal to develop and invest in the Clyde and its operations? That is not clear at this point in time. There have been stop-start projects associated with Inchgreen dry dock, which is the biggest mainland dry dock in Great Britain. We should contrast that with what has happened in Belfast, where there has been massive investment in the former Harland & Wolff shipyard site. Nothing corresponding is happening on the Clyde. I have concerns on a number of fronts. In a more parochial sense, the upper Clyde is, in effect, not dredged any more beyond the Govan shipyard site and at Braehead, where the King George V dock sits. That is a major concern, because there is a real dearth of recreational traffic on the upper Clyde. Anyone who is familiar with Clydeside around Glasgow will know that not many boats go there. That is in contrast with Merseyside, for example, which teems with marinas, wharfage and lots of recreational craft. If Glasgow had a marina at Pacific Quay, that would be a huge boon for the city. It would generate millions of pounds of revenue. No attention is being applied to that. It is quite extraordinary that, in the early 1990s, a private bill was passed that effectively gave quasi-legislative control to a private enterprise, to manage 450 square miles of riverine land in the west of Scotland, with huge legal privileges and byelaws, including the management of the riverbed itself. The obligations that that enterprise has in legislation to maintain a navigable channel as far as the tidal wharf at Glasgow Green have not been adhered to for many years. That has starved, damaged and stymied the Clyde’s potential from central Glasgow all the way down to the estuary. That merits a broader inquiry. Frankly, I am not impressed by the Government’s blasé brush-off in its response to the committee and the petition.
In the same item of business
The Convener
Con
The next petition, PE2029, on nationalising Clydeport, to bring the ports and harbours on the River Clyde into public ownership, was lodged by Robert Buirds ...
Paul Sweeney
Lab
Thank you, convener. I have a personal interest in the petition. I have a background in the shipbuilding industry on the Clyde, working for BAE Systems, and...
The Convener
Con
Thank you very much, Mr Sweeney. I hesitate to invite colleagues to consider matters at all, because Mr Sweeney’s knowledge is fairly comprehensive. Do you ...
Paul Sweeney
Lab
The issue has been raised in the House of Commons and the Scottish Parliament over the years, but it has not had any serious focus. That has been most frustr...
The Convener
Con
I am very grateful for your experience, passion and comprehensive range of suggestions, Mr Sweeney. Colleagues, I am very happy to embrace all of Mr Sweeney’...
Maurice Golden
Con
The committee needs to be clear that we are conflating two separate asks here. One ask is in relation to what we have heard this morning about the future of ...
The Convener
Con
Those were some of the suggestions, along with others, that Mr Sweeney made. Yes, I do think that the petition opens up issues about which I knew very litt...