Tele Postbag: Peel Ports charge plan must be stopped

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Peel Port's leisure boat charge plan must be stopped

As has been reported in the Telegraph, Peel Ports, as the Clyde Harbour Authority, are attempting to introduce a small craft charging regime for the Clyde.

The Peel Group is an offshore company and have made millions since their arrival on the Clyde in 2002 and now they are looking for bigger profits. Peel has also received millions from the public purse for many of their Clyde adventures, yet the company has only 90 Scottish based staff.

The Clyde’s commercial marine traffic has dramatically reduced since they arrived. Observers believe their charges have contributed to this decline. Now they’re coming for the small craft to increase their profits, and they must be stopped.

READ MORE: Plan to charge Inverclyde leisure boat owners 'could sink local sailing clubs'

There is a belief in some quarters that their proposed charging regime includes waters they don’t control. Maybe the King’s Harbour Master has handed them additional waters. Politicians need to investigate and stop this profiteering.

The website Navylookout.com recently ran an article publicising the booming business of ACPL Group, a Peel Group company, employing thousands. We contribute to this success story by sending our CalMac ferry fleet to Cammell Laird on the Mersey, where Peel also owns the Port of Liverpool, for servicing and repairs, costing millions and creating no jobs in Scotland.

Yet our own Inchgreen dry dock lies empty while Peel Group marine assets in England are busting at the seems squeezing in Navy and commercial ships. 

They also maintain and service many oil, gas and wind floating facilities at their east coast facilities that arrive from Scottish waters: again, no jobs for Scotland.

Is it any wonder that the Clyde is dead and the Forth is heading in the same direction with the closure of Grangemouth?

Holyrood and Westminster have failed to protect our industrial base and now they need to rise to the challenge.

Robert Buirds
Secretary, Campaign to Save Inchgreen Dry Dock

‘Make the most of your youth’

I READ with interest Matthew Quinn’s column in the Tele last week (Voice of Youth, November 13).

He is looking for solutions to the one in four children living in poverty in Inverclyde. He is free from the shackles of agenda and platforms. He says real change is organic...in other words, that it grows slowly from good roots. 

If there are five things youth has on its side it is ‘time’, energy, enthusiasm, health and a hunger for information. Alas, the information that is aplenty on your smartphone is robbing youth of their time. 

The irony is that the grandfather clock slowly goes ‘tick tock’ at the swing of the pendulum but now the TikTok app, with its algorithms, consumes ferociously these precious moments of youth. 

READ MORE: Matthew Quinn on the importance of listening to Inverclyde's young people

And if it is not that, it is being possessed by ‘identity’ from the mirror of social media. 
What youth lacks is money, so they grumble. If only there were more Saturday jobs where information was ‘passed on’ from their elders. Those jobs may sometimes be slow and repetitive, but you are valued and you value being useful. 

There is a lot to be said for apprenticeships, but there is a stage before this, that some would call voluntary or casual or enterprise – having an idea and risking having a go.
The poppy wreaths laid at the Gourock war memorial on Remembrance Sunday included contributions, I think, from the Scouts, the Boys’ Brigade and the Girl Guides. (Apologies if I have missed anyone out.)

Are they still popular, those groups and their values of duty and respect and of remembering those who gave their tomorrow so that we could have our today?

My only wisdom comes from the book of Ecclesiastes (12:1): “Remember your Creator in the days of your youth.”

John Burleigh
Grey Place, Greenock

Study into MS

There are an estimated 17,406 people living with multiple sclerosis (MS) in Scotland.  
MS can affect people of any age. But most are diagnosed in their 20s, 30s and 40s, when they are likely to be in the midst of their careers. 

The condition can be debilitating, exhausting and unpredictable, with symptoms fluctuating from day-to-day. So unfortunately, those with MS can face unique challenges in the workplace. 

Sadly, we know that many people are forced to compromise their health to stay in work, or end up leaving employment long before they want to because they don’t get the support, flexibility and reasonable adjustments they need.  

The UK Government is set to address some of these issues in the new Employment Rights Bill, but more needs to be done to better support the health and employment prospects of people with MS. 

That’s why the MS Society has teamed up with the Work Foundation at Lancaster University to launch a UK-wide study into MS and employment.  

We want to find out more about the barriers that people with MS are facing and understand what else the government and employers should be doing. The findings will shape which asks we put forward to decision makers. 

And through this, we are aiming to create a world where those who can and who want to work are better supported to do so, and can thrive in good quality, long-term employment. 

The survey is open until this Sunday, November 24, and we encourage anyone living with MS in the UK to take part. And please share with any friends or family with MS.

You can find the survey online at tinyurl.com/lancasteruniMSsurvey. 

Nick Moberly
CEO of the MS Society