# Scottish Ferries



## bilbaoman (Jun 17, 2016)

The bad news for motorhomers keeps coming CalMac are to increase the cost of using there ferries by around 70% for motorhomes due to the Scotish goverment reducing its subsidy for this type of vehicle


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## Pudsey_Bear (Sep 25, 2008)

I bet the islanders with touristy businesses will really get behind that short-sighted tactic.


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## 242633 (Oct 21, 2021)

Pudsey_Bear said:


> I bet the islanders with touristy businesses will really get behind that short-sighted tactic.


Not at all shortsighted. It was a loophole in a subsidy scheme that was designed to make travel for residents in the Islands less expensive, in turn stopping the depopulation of the Island Communities, and making the provision of everyday services, public and private, affordable

Steve


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## Pudsey_Bear (Sep 25, 2008)

You must have read the OP differently to me Steve.


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## 242633 (Oct 21, 2021)

Pudsey_Bear said:


> You must have read the OP differently to me Steve.


Not at all, Kev. I live in Scotland and my Scottish wife, Elaine, has been educating me in Scottish custom, culture and practice for some 22 years, so I have some background information that reports in England may not supply! It's not uncommon ... Been on another Forum earlier where an English Member claims that Scotland should be grateful to England for the subsidy of £15.5 billion per annum, which is how the English Press and the BBC tend to report it. In fact, all of Scotland's tax revenues go to HM Treasury whothen return some 60-65% to Scotland, and we're expected to tug the forelock and say 'Thank you', according to my English friend!

Back to the plot ... The Ferry subsidy was only intended to apply to Islanders, it was a loophole that the subsidy's wording contained that enabled motorhomes to benefit from the scheme, and the emotive '70% rise' is, in fact, a 50% to 70%' increase. Motorhomers seem proud to claim the mantle of FLTs, posting regularly of how little they paid in Fees etcon their trips, so I doubt that their spend will make a material difference to local tourism; and, if the Islanders wish to subsidise Motorhomers, they can can approach the Scottish Government for assistance from the Tourism Development Budget

Steve


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## erneboy (Feb 8, 2007)

It's a great thing that a few of us from the regions are here to provide information about the running of the troublesome, sponging wastelands we come from.


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## 242633 (Oct 21, 2021)

erneboy said:


> It's a great thing that a few of us from the regions are here to provide information about the running of the troublesome, sponging wastelands we come from.


The 'we subsidise you lot' mantra sends my blood pressure off the scale [and I did have a heart attack 22 months ago ...], but a great deal of blame lies with BBC News and English Press who put out this nonsense, plus the absolute guff about Scotland running a deficit of almost £4 billion, despite it having no ability to borrow anywhere near this sum!

A favourite Twitter riposte to this nonsense is: 'I earn £30pw which my neighbour takes off me and gives me £10 back. He then tells me that he has bought a lawnmower for £30 and my share of the cost is £15. I don't have a garden, much less a lawn ...' :surprise:

Steve


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## dghr272 (Jun 14, 2012)

erneboy said:


> It's a great thing that a few of us from the regions are here to provide information about the running of the troublesome, sponging wastelands we come from.


And they never learn that such rhetoric only stokes local passions. Harold Wilson called the folk in NI spongers many years ago, same effect as throwing petrol on a fire as it turned out.

Terry


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## barryd (May 9, 2008)

Im gonna stick my neck out and say actually this might not be a bad thing. I used to do a lot of the islands and Arran was like a second home for us before we got the motorhome and we have been over several times since we got the van in 2008. It used to be about £160 return or something like that but since it became really cheap coupled with the staycation trend and upsurge in van sales a lot of these islands have seen too many motorhomes and restrictions have started being put in place. We were going to go to Mull as well as Arran this summer but gave it a swerve partly because Cal mac were insisting you needed to book campsites and the Mull Facebook group wouldn't let me join so I basically thought Bollox to you then I wont go. Arran was as always terrific and August was about right but come September it started to get overrun with vans and its one reason we left. When we first started going over in the van in 2008 when it was much more pricey there would be hardly any vans.

However I would say that its discrimination if its just tourists in motorhomes. Surely it should be all tourists in vehicles. I think we used a CL on the island two or three times but apart from that we wild camped. I never properly tallied it up but I think we spent about £1500 on the island over August and part of September. They get a lot of short term trippers in cars and on foot. I doubt any of them will come close to spending that much. 

I would rather pay a bit more to be honest and not see these places overrun so they start taking action like they have on some of the islands like Mull.


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## Glandwr (Jun 12, 2006)

Thatcher tried her utmost to privatise CalMac and failed. It she had succeeded I should imagine that they would be no cheaper and the public subsidy would have to subsidise the service, finance the debt used to buy it AND pay dividends.


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## Pudsey_Bear (Sep 25, 2008)

marchie said:


> Not at all, Kev. I live in Scotland and my Scottish wife, Elaine, has been educating me in Scottish custom, culture and practice for some 22 years, so I have some background information that reports in England may not supply! It's not uncommon ... Been on another Forum earlier where an English Member claims that Scotland should be grateful to England for the subsidy of £15.5 billion per annum, which is how the English Press and the BBC tend to report it. In fact, all of Scotland's tax revenues go to HM Treasury whothen return some 60-65% to Scotland, and we're expected to tug the forelock and say 'Thank you', according to my English friend!
> 
> Back to the plot ... The Ferry subsidy was only intended to apply to Islanders, it was a loophole that the subsidy's wording contained that enabled motorhomes to benefit from the scheme, and the emotive '70% rise' is, in fact, a 50% to 70%' increase. Motorhomers seem proud to claim the mantle of FLTs, posting regularly of how little they paid in Fees etcon their trips, so I doubt that their spend will make a material difference to local tourism; and, if the Islanders wish to subsidise Motorhomers, they can can approach the Scottish Government for assistance from the Tourism Development Budget
> 
> Steve


Thanks Steve, a good insight, however, what I actually meant in my previous post was that perhaps the islanders might not like it because it will put off some tourists in Motorhomes, it is bound to as we are not all well-heeled and have to run to a tight budget, of course, there will also be those who will be glad not to see so many motorhomes. We wanted to go over to Bute last time we were up there but decided there wasn't enough on there to warrant the extra expense of the ferry


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## barryd (May 9, 2008)

Pudsey_Bear said:


> Thanks Steve, a good insight, however, what I actually meant in my previous post was that perhaps the islanders might not like it because it will put off some tourists in Motorhomes, it is bound to as we are not all well-heeled and have to run to a tight budget, of course, there will also be those who will be glad not to see so many motorhomes. We wanted to go over to Bute last time we were up there but decided there wasn't enough on there to warrant the extra expense of the ferry


You have to wonder though if an extra thirty quid or whatever it amounts to puts off some motorhomers just how much they would have spent when they got there anyway. One of the gripes on Arran was the amount of motorhomes that were just using the cheap ferries as a way of hopscotching over to Kintyre where they didnt even stop on the island but just took up ferry space and clogged up the roads. There will always be "moaners" though no matter what.


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## Pudsey_Bear (Sep 25, 2008)

I wasn't moaning, just voicing an opinion, last time we were on Arran we were queueing at a bakery shop and this local woman was really going off on one about how motorhomes were a huge problem and never spending any money, which at least in our case was wrong, we have always liked to shop in small places with local shops where you never see the likes of big stores.


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## barryd (May 9, 2008)

Pudsey_Bear said:


> I wasn't moaning, just voicing an opinion, last time we were on Arran we were queueing at a bakery shop and this local woman was really going off on one about how motorhomes were a huge problem and never spending any money, which at least in our case was wrong, we have always liked to shop in small places with local shops where you never see the likes of big stores.


I wasn't inferring you were moaning, more the odd local as you discovered.


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## Pudsey_Bear (Sep 25, 2008)

Ah, okay I'll let you off


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## Dogslow (Sep 14, 2021)

I am a campervaner, We got married in Auchterader I worked for a Kirriemuir company for 19 years 3 weeks 2 days.I have reached the point in my life where service providers (Calmac) can charge what they like to whom they like they always have.I am just a little more picky on where I spend my hard earned.I hope Calmac survive and prosper .From where I live Stockton on Tees the ferry to the united states of europe is only 45 minutes away unlike Ullapool 7 hours.Or Portsmouth 6 hours and the ferry to Spain. ........Summer in Scotland or summer in Spain you make your choice and pay yer money.Calmac has helped re affirm my decision.


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## Pudsey_Bear (Sep 25, 2008)

Dogslow said:


> .From where I live Stockton on Tees the ferry to the united states of europe is only 45 minutes away.


You'll have to explain that to me Steve, feeling a bit thick (again) this morning.


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## GMJ (Jun 24, 2014)

Ferry across the North Sea (Hull to Rotterdam??) to the EU, I think Kev.


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## Dogslow (Sep 14, 2021)

DFDS Ferry North Shields is 45 minutes away from Stockton on Tees Hull ferry 1 hour 45 , Portsmouth ferry about 6 hours.As a retired long distance steering wheel jockey I avoid the south east of England at every opportunity so Dover is a no no for me.I have used the channel tunnel which is fantastic but again the south east of England .Getting back to Calmac I have used their fantastic ferries many many times.I have a thought .......my van is registered as a light goods vehicle not a campervan or a motorhome I wonder how that will effect the cost.


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## Pudsey_Bear (Sep 25, 2008)

GMJ said:


> Ferry across the North Sea (Hull to Rotterdam??) to the EU, I think Kev.


Yeah, the penny dropped later.


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## Pudsey_Bear (Sep 25, 2008)

Dogslow said:


> DFDS Ferry North Shields is 45 minutes away from Stockton on Tees Hull ferry 1 hour 45 , Portsmouth ferry about 6 hours.As a retired long distance steering wheel jockey I avoid the south east of England at every opportunity so Dover is a no no for me.I have used the channel tunnel which is fantastic but again the south east of England .Getting back to Calmac I have used their fantastic ferries many many times.I have a thought .......my van is registered as a light goods vehicle not a campervan or a motorhome I wonder how that will effect the cost.


Someone on another forum stuck their number plate onto a different van, took a few in and out pictures and sent it off to DVLA, and got motorcaravan on the V5, very naughty, but he'd done a good conversion, it did look like a proper motorhome but DVLA were taking the pi$$ and saying it was a van with windows, I fudge mine slightly by piling up some boxes in the back and draping a table cloth, the rest was all pukka.


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