Lifeline for shipyard

Ferguson’s yard in Port Glasgow, which earlier this week announced it was making 99 workers redundant, was thrown a lifeline when it was learned that bidding was to be opened within three months for a Scottish fisheries protection vessel.

There has already been a row about the tendering process, which was halted after it was found European competition rules may have been broken. There remains no guarantee Ferguson’s will win the tender against higher volume shipbuilders on the Baltic and in southern England.