RESPONSIBILITY for Kilcreggan’s ferry service is unlikely to be passed to Transport Scotland until at least the end of next month, a new report suggests.

Papers for the operations committee of the Strathclyde Partnership for Transport (SPT), which met last Friday, stated that the partnership’s contract with Clyde Marine Services (CMS) of Greenock to operate the Kilcreggan-Gourock link has already been extended until the end of September, having originally been due to run out on July 13.

READ MORE: CalMac tight-lipped on future Kilcreggan ferry contract

But the report says there is still provision for the present contract to be extended even further while negotiations continue over the transfer of responsibility for the route from SPT to Transport Scotland.

The two bodies agreed earlier this year to pursue an early transfer of responsibility for the service’s oversight, following years of campaigning by local residents and politicians.

The report, by SPT’s chief executive Gordon Maclennan, states: “The current contract commenced in May 2018 for an initial period until July 13, 2019, beyond which date it could be extended further as necessary.

“To allow time for the discussions between SPT, Transport Scotland and other parties to be concluded, SPT secured the agreement of Clyde Marine for an extension of the current contract until September 30, 2019, with provision for a further extension should it prove necessary.”

READ MORE: Government 'still committed' to taking on Kilcreggan ferry service

A separate report to Friday’s committee meeting, meanwhile, said that passenger numbers on the Kilcreggan ferry for the two four-week reporting periods ending June 8 and July 6 – the first two for which direct year-on-year comparisons were available since CMS took over the contract for the service from the heavily-criticised previous operator, Clydelink.

From March 16 to July 6, overall patronage was up by 5.7 per cent compared to 2018, but was lower than the same period in 2017.