Councillors will get to question Rob Stewart about the Swansea ferry report on Tuesday 3 November.
The report, paid for with £24,999.95 of public money through Swansea Council, set out the case for a fast passenger ferry across the Bristol Channel to the south west of England. It promised a working prototype this year, a first vessel by 2030, 800,000 visitors and £600m for the economy.
The report is also error-strewn. On its own numbers, its carbon saving comes out at around a hundredth of the figure it claims.
It named the science fiction writer Isaac Asimov, who died in 1992, as a supporter of a scheme to rebuild the pier at Minehead, the Somerset resort directly across the water from Swansea and the kind of place a ferry would need somewhere to land. The pier group was not formed until after his death, and Minehead’s science fiction son is in fact Arthur C. Clarke. And when five of the biggest ferry operators in British and Irish waters were asked in July, none said it was considering a Swansea service.
Opposition councillors have asked what checks the council made before it paid for the report and published it with a foreword by the leader, and whether it still stands by the figures.
Cllr Stewart answered them in writing last week. The report “does not commit the Council to any future investment or delivery decisions”, he said, and the ferry “is not a council proposal”, with the council “committed to exploring transport solutions” that could benefit the region.
Four months after the call-in
Cllr Chris Holley, who chairs the council’s finance scrutiny panel, said in July he would call the report in and invite its authors, Ocean Prime, to answer for it. Nearly four months on, the panel’s work plan gives it a slot: “Report on Ferry Service Consultation Research”, Tuesday 3 November, presented by the council leader and chief executive Martin Nicholls.
Ocean Prime is not on the listing.
Green on the scorecard, “not a council proposal” on paper
The same set of council papers rates the ferry among the council’s own commitments. Its corporate plan includes a pledge to “strive to progress discussions regarding a new ferry service linking Wales with the South West of England”, and the first-quarter performance report marks it green, “discussions ongoing”.
That was signed off in the same fortnight the leader was telling councillors the ferry was not the council’s proposal.
The council’s line is that it can back the idea without owning it. Cllr Stewart’s written answers describe the current work as “proof of concept”, with Ocean Prime talking to “prospective partners across south Wales and West of England”. Where a ferry would dock in the south west, and who would pay for a prototype, remain unanswered.
Thursday first
Before November comes Thursday. The leader’s written answers were prepared for full council at the Guildhall at 5pm on 1 October, where the councillors who asked the questions can put their follow-ups to him in person.
The work plan itself goes to the scrutiny panel on Tuesday 6 October, alongside the council’s first-quarter finances and performance.
The ferry has been on the council’s agenda since 2022, when Cllr Stewart announced plans for a hydrogen-powered crossing to Devon and Cornwall and called it “an exciting project”. A public survey run through the project’s own website last winter drew more than 4,300 responses, almost 98% in favour.
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