Selkie working days rise but performance questions remain
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MORAY Council’s dredger has increased the number of days it has managed to remove sand and silt from harbours, it has emerged.
From the beginning of April 2022 to the end of March 2023 the Selkie, which is based at Buckie Harbour, worked 94 days, a rise from 77 over the previous reporting period.
However, less debris has been cleared. That fell from 14,120 tonnes in 2021-22 to 12,880 tonnes.
Also, Selkie has spent more time in dock – 68 days – over the last 12 months because of adverse weather conditions, four days more than the previous figure.
However, the number of days Selkie has not been able to work for maintenance reasons has dropped from 59 to 46.
In his report to the council's economic development and infrastructure committee harbours development and operations manager Stuart Akass said: “The plan for increased efficiency moving forward is to maximise the number of days crewed on vessel, and continue to work effectively with maintenance to lower the number of maintenance days further.”
Buckie councillor Sonya Warren welcomed the improvements outlined in the new figures, but said that work remained to be done.
She continued: "Overall there is a general improvement towards achieving KPI [Key Performance Indicators] which demonstrates the hard work the harbour team are putting in to this service.
"It's interesting that although there is improvement in terms of the reduction of days not worked due to maintenance, there's still no indication of the breakdown between planned and unplanned maintenance on the dredger. This is something I believe it would be advantageous to see in order to gain a fuller picture of the Selkie's performance, especially given that unplanned maintenance has been quite a major issue with the vessel since her launch.
"Also, it's notable that although the number of working days are up, the volume shifted by the dredger was down by quite a marked difference.
"The report also indicates there are still issues with the recruitment of crew. In my opinion, having a regular, experienced crew would make a huge difference to the dredging operations.
"However, recruitment issues are not unique to either the Selkie nor the council. Many public services and private businesses are reporting staff recruitment and retention issues, which stem from Brexit. It's an issue the UK government needs to address with urgency."
Fellow ward councillor Neil McLennan that more information was required to gain a clear picture of the Selkie's overall performance.
He said: "The Selke is perhaps one of the most talked about things in Buckie and Buckie Harbour.
"As ever with statistics there are many questions to ask of them. Naturally people will want to know why it appears to have been running for more days and yet apparently less dredged.
"We will need to know how many hours it was running for and how many of them was it operational. I am sure there will be lots more interest in the stats and the Selkie itself as due diligence questions are asked."
Selkie came into service in spring 2016 after being launched at Buckie Harbour.
She is the only council-owned dredger in Scotland and cost £2.5 million to build. She replaced the local authority’s previous vessel the Shearwater. The vessel was sold more than 10 years ago following concerns over mounting repair costs, but is still in operation.
