Member Info for Si_Derman

Sorry, trying to keep up, on the phone, at work, at hight.... What is this formal contract singing mentioned at 10:47 by scaffman. Is this still relavent or old time lines?

X, you would think so. But from watching this unfold and following these council meetings you would be surprised just how slow things are with the council. It's all about procedure it seems.

Just as a heads up, and not saying it is because of the unfolding story of the ferry contract and associated issues, but an Extraordinary FULL COUNCIL meeting has been called by the IoSC for Thursday, 9th November, 2023 9.30 am.

The agenda of the meeting will be displayed in the week before the meeting. Will post it here when it arrives.

Maybe there will some clarity as to what is happening regarding the various proposals.

Why would the council in any way support the private approach? They have been gifted the leveling up funds to make this happen. Only yesterday they voted to submit a business case to the DfT for the LuF. A business case they were asked to go and prepare by the minister. Who they met less than a week ago. Something they had spent weeks working on with the assistance of the the department for transport representatives and the IoSSSC themselves. Were the Steamship company just playing along? Let the council submit their case and then release thier own privately funded proposal. It just makes no sense. And in what world is that going to look good to the department or Baroness Vere, who have the final decision.

Is this one contract so important given the huge pipeline of work that has been spoken of.

Here are the links to yesterdays meeting.

Listen to the 22min one first. This is before they go into the private session.

The relevant bit in the longer one is straight after the break so you don't have to sit through the whole thing.

https://www.facebook.com/ioscouncil/videos

Thanks K. Interesting development.

Air service threats? Is that because the Steamship company also run the flights to and from the islands and using that as a ransom ploy?

Are H&W still going to try and go it alone I wonder?

All along they have said the LuF has to go through the council and the only way H&W could be part of the funding would be to join with the council as part of the suggested SPV.

Ti's what now?

Details please.

Basically, the Steamship company has announced its preferred shipyard. Whether this is part of a joint proposal with the council is not clear. Regardless, we now know that H&W don't form part of their proposal. The DfT has final say. Whether our sneaky bid is in with a chance is anyone's guess at this stage.

Posting from up a ladder. Lol :)

Sorry but I'm on site at not near my pc. The part 3 was the bit where they talked in private during yesterdays meeting due to NDAs. When they came out of that they voted to okay the new business plan and submit it. If you go to the I oS Council website and find their media page there is link to their Facebook page where you can listen to the whole meeting. It's all seems a bit odd to agree to join with the council to submit to FBC then announce this today.

Okay. Think it came out of nowhere from everyone's perspective, tbh.

They mention their private funding but no mention of the LuF. And on the back of yesterday's council decision to submit a joint plan to the DfT. Very odd.

That's a bummer. I know the Appledore guys were hopeful of a new-build project.

You think he just threw together a design and proposal in a few weeks. Okay.

Without meaning to be disparaging, Xenor. I must say that you seen to think you know the mind of our CEO very well with some of your reasonings for his exploits. :)

Basically. Gis a job, go on, gis it. I can do dat.

For clarity, helped or hindered our chances of getting a vessel building contract.

Not becoming a ferry operator. :)

According to the Belfast harbour website it's docking at PD6. Not sure which one that is just yet.

13/09/23 20:57 ANDREA VICTORY ARR SCH PD6 D L Foynes - Liverpool HAMILTON SHIPPING (PORT)

16/09/23 06:00 ANDREA VICTORY DEP PLN PD6 D L Foynes - Liverpool HAMILTON SHIPPING (PORT)

The IoS council had their Full Council meeting first thing this morning in which ongoing “progress” of the Sea Links Project was discussed. In brief, from listening to the recording.

Last Friday, the 9th of September, certain councillors had a “positive and helpful” meeting with JW's old friend (allegedly) Baroness Vere. Previously she had told them to just go away and talk with the Steamship Company and the DfT to draw up a workable plan to utilise the, still available, levelling up funds.

That has now become a Full Business Case which was pre-submitted to the DfT on the 3rd of September in advance of today’s council meeting in which the Business Case was to be considered for approval. This was so that they could make a start the normally long process of the review process in their various departments. The various parts of the case were explained regarding the strategic, commercial, financial, economic and management cases.

There was a brief delay while they went into double secret probation mode, away from the public. Or part 3, as they call it. There the FBC was fully debated, and when they came out, they agreed unanimously to adopt and submit it to the DfT for formal consideration. The department has said that they will seek to review the proposal as quickly as possible to avoid any further unnecessary delays in taking the project forward.

So, long story short. The IoS council along with the IoSSSC have submitted their joint proposal to the DfT.

There was no mention of H&W. And we will now have to wait and see if JW’s “proposal” has helped on hindered our chances.

Guess the advertising budget as taken a bit of a hit of late, going by the size of the banner.

If you turn that banner over does it say "survey vessel" on the other side. ;)

... evolved design of FSS for the RFA.

https://www.navalnews.com/event-news/dsei-2023/2023/09/dsei-2023-team-resolute-unveils-evolved-design-of-fss-for-the-rfa/

Sorry if already posted. Doubt very much it's in any of the multitude of green boxes. lol

See Babcox and Saab have signed a "strategic cooperation agreement" today at DESI.

So hoping for at least a LoI or a MoU this week. ;)

Fwiw, the Sarah Grey is from an Appledore based company. :)

Looks highly likely to taking CBB5 as their departure times now match.

Have always seen the two things in direct conflict, Lottie. That is, saying they are going to increase the workforce to 1200 or so then saying that the new machinery will decrease the labour tenfold. If they can manage both then they will be very busy indeed.

Every time I manage to look at one of LinkedIn posts that are posted here there seems to be a new batch of managerial types on the lefthand side. Some of their positions I've never heard of, tbh. So maybe the increase in headcount will be managers managing other managers. :)

One thing I recall on the subject was JW saying in one of the less recent interviews that they had spent or ordered a large piece of equipment. Some kind of panel processing press or some such. At the time the cost of it made me think, well that's a large chunk of the upgrading money used up. Twenty to thirty million comes to mind.

Kept meaning to go back through the transcripts of the earlier webcasts. But...

A beacon of light amongst dimwits