DELAYS to the MV Glen Sannox, the state-of-the-art new ferry that will serve the Isle of Arran, have not played a big part in the delivery of investment in Ardrossan Harbour, according the main players in the campaign to save the ferry.

Karen Yeomans from North Ayrshire Council said: “It hasn’t really featured and we know that it (the ferry) is coming in but we don’t have a defined date. What we have been trying to do is get the best option for Ardrossan for the harbour. Whether the ferry came in this year, next year or whenever, it has not been about what suits Ardrossan in the short-term it has been what is in Ardrossan’ long-term interests.

“Whenever the new ferry comes in, we’ll just have to accommodate that in the whole programme planning.”

And Kenneth Gibson MSP, who also sits on the Ardrossan Harbour Taskforce, agreed, he added: “I don’t think any delay in construction is good and I think the people would have liked to have seen the new vessel in service later this year if that was possible.

“But the issue was it was a revolutionary design and it was built in a shipyard that increased its workforce from 67 to 540 in the space of a couple of years and there has been teething troubles in terms of the technology but at the end of the day, the delay is only going to be three or four months over the quieter winter period but the important fact that it will be a spanking new ferry, with more passengers and cars.”

Continuing the campaign’s cross-party, Joe Cullinane agreed that the delay wasn’t good but the new ferry coming in was a positive, he added: “I don’t think it (the delay) is a welcome distraction, it is one of these things that is a bit of a nightmare, people have been looking for the new boat to come in and obviously there are challenges on existing services in terms of capacity etc and this boat will help address that.

“It does mean that there has been maybe a wee bit more breathing space for the taskforce in terms of getting to the point where they are but at the end of the day, the boat is being built fit Ardrossan, it should be able to go in as it is just now.

“What we are doing is making sure that harbour is brought up to a standard to make sure the reliability with the new boat is absolutely spot on.”