TRANSPORT Scotland has accused the TSSA union of spreading “utterly false” rumours over possible changes to island ferry routes.

Yesterday morning, Manuel Cortes, the general secretary of the Transport Salaried Staffs’ Association, sent out a press release saying he feared that Transport Minister Michael Matheson was on the verge of breaking up CalMac ferries.

It came after MSPs on Holyrood’s Rural Economy and Connectivity Committee wrote to Matheson to call for investment in the Clyde and Hebrides ferry services to be prioritised in the upcoming Budget, and for there to be an urgent review of the Ferries Plan to ensure island communities are properly served.

In their letter, the MSPs also mentioned the tendering process for Clyde and Hebrides Ferry Service (CHFS), currently operated by CalMac after a particularly bruising bidding war for the £900 million contact in 2016.

Serco – who had been competing for the contract – were deemed to be “non-compliant” by Transport Scotland after asking for changes to commercial terms.

The committee told the minister that they had heard the tender process was “complex, inflexible, expensive and can discourage market entry by more efficient providers.”

They said they were told that in countries such as Norway, “routes can be tendered as smaller bundles and operators are entitled to own their own vessels and to innovate within certain parameters.”

Cortes said it would be “cloud cuckoo” to bring this in for Scotland.

He warned: “If the Scottish Government bundles the routes for the next CHFS contract, privateers will swoop in on the profitable routes, whilst the Scottish taxpayers are left footing the bill for the rest.”

He added: “There’s much to welcome in the recommendations. More investment in ships and harbours is long overdue.

“But the Scottish Government can only get good value for money for this by placing bulk orders. A series of different private companies running different routes won’t get the favourable loan rates to build them that a public sector body like the Scottish Government could.”

A spokesperson for the Scottish Government told The National: “This suggestion is utterly false and without any foundation whatsoever – we are wholly committed to keeping the Clyde and Hebrides Ferry Services network in its existing form.”