The Scottish ferries union RMT has welcomed the news that CalMac Pentalina Cataraman Charter has been scrapped after raising safety concerns.

The Herald reported last week that the Pentalina vessel had been taken out of commercial service after the union called for a safety re-inspection. 

The union had raised serious safety concerns with the regulator, the Maritime and Coastguard Agency, over the modifications made to the Pentalina. 

RMT General Secretary, Mick Lynch said: “We of course recognise the difficulties caused to people and businesses by the ongoing failure of the Scottish Government’s vessel procurement programme. But bringing an unsafe vessel onto Clyde and Hebrides ferry services is in no one’s interest.

“We strongly believe that a cavalier approach to safety and seafarers’ rights, hallmarks of Pentland Ferries, have no place on Scotland’s lifeline ferry services.”

Meanwhile, MSP Kenneth Gibson, who represents Arran as part of his Cunninghame North constituency, has expressed his disappointment and dismay at the 11th-hour decision of Pentland Ferries to pull out of a deal to lease the MV Pentalina to CalMac.

The MSP said:“I know this news will come as a great disappointment to the people and communities of Arran after so much work had been undertaken by Calmac, CMAL, and the Scottish Government to bring the MV Pentalina into service on the Ardrossan to Brodick route.

“Until last Friday at 4pm everything was in place; heads of terms had been agreed, sea and berthing trials successfully completed and a timetable for operation established.

“The about-face by Pentland Ferries came as a shock and I thank Transport Minister Graeme Dey and his staff for spending last weekend pulling out all the stops to try and dissuade Pentland Ferries from this regrettable decision.

“Other vessels are being looked at in order to provide the service Arran residents and visitors both need and deserve.”

Meanwhile, Robbie Drummond, Managing Director at CalMac, said: “CalMac has investigated the use of the MV Pentalina to provide additional resilience to our network. Berthing trials had shown she could successfully operate services to Arran and Mull and we were looking forward to her deployment.

“Unfortunately, Pentland Ferries decided not to enter into a charter agreement for the use of the MV Pentalina on our network.

“We are surprised and disappointed by this unexpected news. However, this was entirely a decision for Pentland Ferries in relation to the use of its vessel. We will continue to work closely with Transport Scotland and Pentland Ferries and should they revisit that decision and make the vessel available to us at a future date, we would consider this option again.

“Whilst disappointing, we were able to develop an understanding of where the vessel could be used and where there would be limitations as a result of the berthing trials and operational issues with the vessel's single-ended design.

“I thank islanders for their patience and support as we continue to search for suitable alternatives available for charter or purchase to enhance capacity and resilience within our network.”

This charter with Pentland Ferries was due to be a standard maritime Baltic and International Maritime Council time-charter.

Pentland Ferries would have provided the vessel and the crew to deliver the timetable, with CalMac providing crew to support onboard retailing.