Ardrossan Harbour – who owns it?
OK it might seem odd that we’re writing a blog post entitled Ardrossan Harbour. So here are some questions: who owns it? who used to own it? why isn’t CalMac using it any longer? (And behind those questions are some bigger question: who owns Scotland? But we’ll come back to that later.)
So who owns it?
Since 2003, Peel Ports Ltd. Part of The Peel Group, a property business mainly based in Manchester, and Northwest England. Before that, from 1992-2003, it was owned Clyde Port Authority Ltd a private company based in Scotland.
Who owned it before 1992?
Pre-1992, the Clyde Port Authority was a Statutory Trust Port (also described as a self-governing public trust port or independent statutory body), established under the Clyde Port Authority Order 1965 (and subsequent legislation). This merged earlier trusts (including the Clyde Navigation Trust and Greenock Harbour Trust) into a public authority operating under its own Acts of Parliament.
Trust Port Key Characteristics: It was considered a public body or public agency in broader terms, distinct from private ownership. It was independent and self-financing, generating revenue from port operations rather than relying on direct government funding. Some board members were appointed by the Secretary of State for Transport, giving limited government oversight. It had statutory duties (e.g., maintaining navigation, conservation) as a harbour authority.
Well that sounds like a good set-up. Why privatise it?
Good question. Are you old enough to remember the 1990s? Then you’ll know was in power in 1992. The Tories led by John Major who had replaced Mrs Thatcher in 1990. But he didn’t replace her privatisation policy. It had started in 1980s and carried on with the 1991 Ports Act which allowed voluntary privatisation of major trust ports.
Five major Trust Ports privatised voluntarily in 1992: Clyde, Forth, Teesside, Medway, and Tilbury. Dundee followed in 1995.
What if the Trust Ports hadn’t wanted to privatise?
The 1991 Ports Act had provision to compel them. Ipswich held out but was sold in 1997. The Tyne Trust Port was due to be sold but that was cancelled by incoming the Labour Government in 1997. Lucky Tyneside!
Look, we’re drifting away from Ardrossan Harbour, so to speak
Yes, sorry. Good to lay out a time though. OK, so Ardrossan Harbour has been owned by Peel Ports for 22 years. The harbour is the rail terminus for Glasgow to Ardrossan line. If you fancy a day out on Arran just take the train down, walk a few metres from the platform to the quay, and get on the hourly CalMac service over to Brodick.
Only now you can’t. Calmac has stopped using Ardrossan and the ferry goes to Troon Harbour instead. That also means Peel Ports have lost about £1.5million annual income in harbour fees from the ferry.
But why did they move to Troon from Ardrossan?
Long story short? The entrance to Ardrossan Harbour entrance requires a angled approach and can be pretty tricky, as you’ll know if you’ve done the trip in stormy weather. That alone caused cancellations in bad weather.
CalMac now has a new, bigger ferry. Which is good. And Peel Ports have known for years that it was on order and what size it would be. But they have done nothing to upgrade the harbour facilities. And one docking berth has been closed for safety reasons. The CalMac boss has not held back in his criticism of Peel Ports‘ lack of investment.
So is there a railway station in Troon?
Happily yes there is though it’s a wee walk over to the harbour, over a mile. CalMac has set up a free shuttle bus every 15 mins from the railway station. By the way, Calmac is publicly owned by ScotGov, and run in much the same way as Trust Ports were run.
OK. But why write all now this now?
Because the Scottish media, back by Scottish Tories and Labour, have been criticising ScotGov SNP for being slow in buying Ardrossan from Peel Ports. In fact it would be bought by Caledonian Maritime Assets Ltd (CMAL) a company owned by ScotGov and which runs the infrastructure used by CalMac.
So there you have it. Mrs Thatcher et al created a wonderful world – for property developers.
- England votes for the Tory party, Mrs Thatcher starts to sell off publicly-owned infrastructure.
- in 1992, the Clyde Port Authority Trust, a financially sound enterprise, is sold off. Then a decade later it’s sold on to Peel Ports.
- those private owners channel profits to their shareholders. For 33 years.
- they run down assets by failing to invest for the long term. To extent that Ardrossan Harbour has lost its biggest ferry customer.
- none of that is stopping Tories and Labour from criticising SNP and demand that CMAL / ScotGov buy Ardrossan Harbour from Peel and use public money it to restore it.
- PS. Peel Ports is part of the Peel Group. It’s chairman and majority shareholder is billionaire John Whittaker. More about him here.
What about Tyne? Did it get sold eventually? NO. It didn’t. It’s still a Trust Port, read all about it:
- No Owners/Shareholders: It’s owned by no one, existing for public benefit, not private profit.
- Self-Financing: It receives no government funding, generating revenue from its operations (cargo, cruise, logistics, etc.) to fund improvements.
- Statutory Body: Governed by its own statutes and an independent board, with the Secretary of State for Transport appointing key board members due to its national importance.
- Stakeholder Focus: Profits are reinvested for customers, employees, businesses, and the local community.
- Long-Term Vision: Manages the river’s conservancy and navigation, aiming for a sustainable future (e.g., Tyne 2050 strategy).
Just think if our Clyde maritime infrastructure hadn’t been sold off. 😡 I need a drink…. Bye for now.
And thank you John Robertson of Talking Up Scotland who put me on to this in one of his recent blog posts.
Best ways to support Scottish Independence Podcasts …
We are passionate supporters of Scottish independence – that’s why we give our time for free. If you enjoy what we do, and you would like to buy us the occasional coffee, you’ll be helping us cover more Indy events and bringing you even more great content.
And nominate us as your good cause on Easyfundraising
Subscribe to our podcast feeds. Our team produces a NEW podcast episode every Friday. Search for Scottish Independence Podcasts wherever you get your podcasts: Apple, YouTube Music, Podbean, Amazon and many more. If you’ve enjoyed a podcast please share it and tag us in.
Subscribe to our Youtube channel @IndyPodExtra for more of our video footage and clips
Follow us on Social Media. It all helps to extend our reach and be visible to more people. We’re on Facebook, Twitter, Mastodon, TikTok and Instagram. Just click on the buttons and join our on-line community.
“Calmac now has a new, bigger ferry. Which is good.”
No it is not.
I have it on reasonable authority that the regular Masters on the route were consulted at the planning stage for the new vessel as to the absolute maximum overall length to ensure safe operation at Ardrossan, they specified 100m – the new vessels are 102.4m.
The principle of a two ship service to Arran has long been accepted – there was no traffic requirement for vessels of this size, vessels of similar dimensions to the Caledonian Isles would have been more than adequate and would have avoided a large part of the subsequent problems.
Don’t get me wrong, it wouldn’t matter if Labour, Lib-dem, Tory or whatever were in charge at Holyrood – the entire Scottish political class are incompetent.
Thanks for your comment. We haven’t fact-checked it, so taking you as an honest Scot. But the main point in the post still stands: part of Ardrossan harbour has been closed for safety reasons.
PS It must be galling to feel that Scotland has no competent leadership.