Boss of shipyard nationalised by SNP sacked amid ferry debacle

The chief executive of nationalised Scottish shipyard Ferguson Marine has been sacked only two years into the job after warning of further delays to a crucial CalMac ferry project.

David Tydeman’s £205,000-a-year contract was terminated by the Ferguson board after he told ministers that additional snags were likely. Delivery of the two new vessels is already six years late and more than £250m over budget.

The government said further hold ups in supplying the ships were “unacceptable.”

CalMac services run between the Hebrides and the Scottish mainland but have been disrupted by the delays, impacting travel to and from remote island communities reliant on ferry services for links to the outside world.

Ferguson Marine chairman Andrew Cotton said the board had terminated Mr Tydeman’s contract after recognising that the company “needs strong leadership to ensure its long-term future”. Non-executive director John Petticrew has been appointed as interim chief.

Mr Tydeman joined the Port Glasgow-based shipyard in February 2022 after previously running a yacht-making company. He succeeded David Hair, who had been hired in 2019 as a turnaround specialist and who invoiced fees of £1.3m, with a daily rate of £4,000, paid for out of public funds.

Scottish taxpayers have been landed with a huge bill for the ferry project after the initial £97m budget more than tripled, leading then First Minister Nicola Sturgeon to nationalise Ferguson Marine in 2019.

The Scottish Parliament’s public audit committee criticised Ms Sturgeon in a report last year, saying Ferguson Marine had been awarded the ferry contract prematurely and questioning her attendance of the launch of the first ship into the Clyde in 2017 even though it was many years from completion.

Mr Tydeman had recently indicated that the first of the delayed vessels, the Glen Sannox, would be delivered in May after undergoing positive sea trials, before revealing that further setbacks had been encountered.

Scottish Conservative shadow transport minister Graham Simpson said Mr Tydeman had been made a scapegoat and that the government should explain why he had been sacked.

He said: “The only people not held accountable are those who are most responsible: the SNP government. It beggars belief that not a single ministerial resignation has been offered when the buck stops with them for years of grotesque mismanagement of Scotland’s ferry network.”

Ferguson Marine said Mr Petticrew would bring 40 years of experience in shipbuilding and infrastructure. It has also appointed David Dishon, formerly of Network Rail and Scottish airline Loganair, as its chief financial officer and created a new role of chief operations officer.

Ferguson Marine, which is more than 120 years old, has struggled to win further contracts following its nationalisation and the CalMac debacle. The company has also been plagued by drink and drug problems, with eight staff sacked after testing positive in one month alone in 2021.

CalMac declined to comment on the dismissal of Mr Tydeman.

A spokesman said that the Glen Sannox had not been factored into the summer timetable, so that there would be no direct impact on capacity during the busy summer months when the company’s ferries carry thousands of tourists vital to the economy of the Western Isles.

Both the Glen Sannox and the second delayed vessel, the Glen Rosa, which is scheduled to arrive by September next year, are expected to be deployed on a route linking the port of Ardrossan, on the Ayrshire coast south of Glasgow, with Brodick on the Isle of Arran.

CalMac had already leased a 430-passenger catamaran ferry until July to provide additional capacity on the Arran service, though the delivery delays, combined with the withdrawal of the MV Caledonian Isles for steelwork repairs, means Campbelltown on the Kintyre peninsula will remain without a ferry service.