TROON Port owners ABP have blasted the report into the future of the Arran ferry service, which recommended it remain in Ardrossan.

Following Troon’s bid to take over the service, Transport Minister Hunza Youseff ordered a report into the future of the ferry.

While a final decision has yet to be announced, the report strongly recommended it remain in North Ayrshire.

But last week ABP challenged the report’s findings in their submission to the Scottish Government.

And they called on the Transport Minister, Humza Yousaf, to undertake further study before making his final decision.

ABP warned that any future dealings must guarantee service reliability improvements and that no further costs will impact the fare-payers or taxpayers.

It is claimed that this could happen in the event that additional expenditure is needed on the Port of Ardrossan in order to accommodate the new ferry.

They claim the report disregards this key point and does not illustrate whether the Port of Ardrossan can handle the vessel.

According to the letter, Ardrossan’s proposals do not include a new breakwater, a berth extension, lack a commitment to fund a passenger access system and the potential for the new passenger terminal not to be built for eight years.

The letter said: “The potential for spiralling costs to the Scottish Government and fare-payers has been completely overlooked; the report completely fails to tackle the primary issue of port resilience; significant investments likely required by Ardrossan’s port infrastructure have been omitted; it is not possible to analyse important details contained in the report since they are redacted; in many instances it is not clear how this can be justified and key questions around the deliverability of Ardrossan’s proposals have not been answered.”

It added: “The report fails to highlight the extent of the superiority of Troon’s onward connections and analysis of the socio-economic impact has been completely focussed on Ardrossan, with negligible analysis of the potential for positive impact on Arran or Troon.”

Stuart Cresswell, manager at ABP Troon, said: “We urge the Scottish Government to commission further research to address this hole before making any further decisions.

”It is paramount that tax payer and fare payers do not end up in a situation where they are forced to foot the bill for spiralling costs.”