AN AYRSHIRE MSP has blasted Ardrossan harbour owners Peel Ports after it was revealed that their billionaire owner, Clydeport boss John Whittaker, had received £22million in dividends last year.
Labour's Katy Clark repeated her call for Ardrossan Harbour to nationalised and taken out of Peel Ports' control.
The company has come under fire recently for its stewardship of the Ardrossan terminal after it closed the harbour's 'Irish berth' permanently on safety grounds...then complained that damage to the pier structure was being caused by Caledonian MacBrayne's ferries.
CalMac warned last month that it might have to permanently move the mainland terminal for the Arran ferry from Ardrossan to Troon because of the dilapidated state of the facilities at Ardrossan.
Today, Peel Ports hit back at the "wild claims" insisting they had invested millions at Ardrossan Harbour.
But Ms Clark said: “It is completely unacceptable that this unaccountable company continue to own swathes of land along the River Clyde decades after Margaret Thatcher’s privatisation of publicly owned ports, harbours and coastal land, which handed these strategic assets to a handful of directors for little outlay from them.
“Peel’s stewardship of Clydeport has been a failure: they’ve refused to dredge the River Clyde beyond Braehead, failed to secure a future for Inchgreen Dry Dock and other assets, use the land they own in different parts of the UK to land bank and maximise getting public money from different parts of the public sector.
"These national assets need to be managed in the national interest, not used to maximise profit in a crude form of capitalist ownership.
“Most recently, their intransigence over the Ardrossan Harbour development, which was initially approved six years and ago is vitally needed to secure the future of the Ardrossan-Arran ferry service, has been nothing short of shameful.
"Whilst the public sector continues to throw public money at Peel, the mega-firm’s tax haven-based owner is pocketing millions.
“To develop an industrial strategy for the West of Scotland, we must remove Peel’s stranglehold along the River Clyde.
"These strategic national assets must be brought into public hands and the Scottish Government needs to rise to the challenge of taking the action necessary to ensure this.“
However Peel Ports hit back at the claims today - insisting they had already spent millions at Ardrossan.
A spokesperson said: "Despite the increasingly wild claims by some, we’ve invested tens of millions of pounds into our facilities at Ardrossan, Inchgreen, Greenock Ocean Terminal and elsewhere.
"Our operations are successful because we invest in them, creating jobs and opportunities for other businesses in those areas.”
The Peel Group owns 37.6 per cent of the Peel Ports Group, and the Whittaker family as a collective is a shareholder in the Peel Group
The company said they had "invested millions at Ardrossan".
They added: "Since 2022 alone we’ve carried out refurbishment works on the Arran Berth including pulleys, ropes, and gearing being replaced. repairs to flotation tanks, hinges and vital mechanics. We’ve invested more than £500,000 in the Irish Berth alone in the last five years.
"For the upgrade project, to support the delayed ferries, we’ve already invested a further £2million and we are willing to spend even more. The Scottish Government and Calmac are yet to agree on the specification and the business case. We have been waiting to proceed with this for many years."
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