New row over business cash for firms hit by ferry chaos

A NEAR £4.5m support fund for island businesses affected on-going disruption to ferry services launched by the Scottish Government has been slammed by locals.

- By Richard Elias

The Island Business Resilience Fund (IBRF) is expected to pay grants of up to £35,000 to eligible businesses.

However, it will only apply to South Uist, Colonsay, North Uist, Eriskay, Benbecula, Berneray, Grimsay and Arran.

The Scottish Government said the IBRF was being targeted to businesses on the eight selected

Shambles

islands as these have seen more than 15% of services disrupted over the last three seasons.

This compares with an average of seven per cent across the CalMac ferry network as a whole.

Yesterday, the group which represents the islands' ferry users hit out at the fact that the fund would only open to businesses on eight islands.