Advertiser columnist Ruth Wishart writes about the efforts of frustrated Kilcreggan ferry users to put a new twist on their protests.

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Fame Academy beckons for the Peninsula Choir, whose rendition of the despairing ditty anent the Kilcreggan “ferry service” has now reached the giddy heights of the BBC, and can be viewed in all its nautical glory on YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TSxmf1gYuSw -  thanks to local cameraman Dave Dunbar.

Just a wee taster before Jackie Baillie’s parliamentary motion on the same subject is aired at Holyrood today.

This sorry saga has had more dodgy plot twists than The Archers and EastEnders combined, so maybe now the utter failure of the current contractor to provide the service for which it is handsomely rewarded might speed up the day when the community gets a decent boat from a more committed company.

As folks up and down the west of Scotland are very well aware, ferries are not some cute wee adornment, tourists for the use of, but absolutely vital links – in our case for the local workforce, the business and student commute, and the swiftest means of visiting hospital.

Last Friday, as I made my way to Paisley by car in a snowstorm, I reflected that I could have got to Paisley Gilmour Street via Gourock with a fraction of the time and stress.

Then again, like many other folks, and, as it says in the new song’s chorus, I kind of assumed “the Kilcreggan ferry’s aff again”.