<<Govan Ferry axed two years after relaunch...Glasgow City spent £300,000 building a pontoon so that a ferry could take people from the Govan side of the Clyde to the new Riverside Museum, all as part of the Govan regeneration project. This restored the old ferry link between the banks of the Clyde that ran for 200 years till the mid-60s. It didn't bring any jobs (the ferry guys seemed to be Polish or Russian) but it got tourists into Govan, on the subway and by bus, and it brought a bit of life to the town centre. The new ferry was run by a private company, Clyde Marine...The stories of this company's incompetence are legion. Their website was never up to date. There were never any signs on either side of the river telling you if and when the ferry was running. You could go to Govan and discover the ferry was 'aff' or go the long way round to Riverside, only to discover just by looking that the ferry was actually on...
I wrote to Nicola Sturgeon (Govan MSP) and I hope she kept my letter. If ever an area could ill afford to waste £300,000, it's Govan. This is an area of multiple deprivation, with more social and economic problems than you could shake a stick at. On this occasion, I don't blame the council at all. Just give me half an hour in a room with the boss man of Clyde Marine, one Hamish Munro, who claims: 'The year after the Riverside Museum opened, passenger numbers collapsed.' He blames the recession and the weather. Hamish, your company allowed passenger numbers to collapse by running a totally amateurish operation. And I suspect what you want to do now is screw some more money out of someone to keep the service running. Personally, I'd send you off with a swift kick up the jaxie. Then I'd put in some Govan boys to run the operation...>>
And, guess what? The ferry is back on - only for a month from 12 July to 11 August. It's free and available on demand - and it is financed by the Govan Workspace (that is, the council tax payers of Glasgow). Of course, Clyde Marine had the council over a barrel: a lot of money has been invested in mounting a new exhibition of the Govan Stones, an amazing collection of early medieval burial stones, in Govan Old Parish Church:
http://www.thegovanstones.org.uk/
And the way the council had hoped to get people in to see it was to offer them the chance to visit Riverside Museum and then hop across the Clyde on the Govan Ferry - the exhibition is just 100 yards on the left from the ferry pontoon.
Information about the ferry is here:
http://content.yudu.com/Library/A2aipj/GovanPressJuly122013/resources/index.htm?referrerUrl=http%3A%2F%2Ffree.yudu.com%2Fitem%2Fdetails%2F1052331%2FGovan-Press-July-12--2013
I hope the exhibition is a huge success and that many visitors find their way across the Clyde to visit it. But I would like to think by 11 August, Clyde Marine has come up with a professional business plan and doesn't just put its hand out for another freebie from the council tax payers.
And, guess what? The ferry is back on - only for a month from 12 July to 11 August. It's free and available on demand - and it is financed by the Govan Workspace (that is, the council tax payers of Glasgow). Of course, Clyde Marine had the council over a barrel: a lot of money has been invested in mounting a new exhibition of the Govan Stones, an amazing collection of early medieval burial stones, in Govan Old Parish Church:
http://www.thegovanstones.org.uk/
And the way the council had hoped to get people in to see it was to offer them the chance to visit Riverside Museum and then hop across the Clyde on the Govan Ferry - the exhibition is just 100 yards on the left from the ferry pontoon.
Information about the ferry is here:
http://content.yudu.com/Library/A2aipj/GovanPressJuly122013/resources/index.htm?referrerUrl=http%3A%2F%2Ffree.yudu.com%2Fitem%2Fdetails%2F1052331%2FGovan-Press-July-12--2013
I hope the exhibition is a huge success and that many visitors find their way across the Clyde to visit it. But I would like to think by 11 August, Clyde Marine has come up with a professional business plan and doesn't just put its hand out for another freebie from the council tax payers.
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