Only a fifth of Scots believe the SNP government has done a good job of handling island ferry services.
Two brand new vessels are still languishing at the nationalised Ferguson Marine shipyard in Port Glasgow, and are now five years late and at £250 million, are more than twice over budget.
However a new poll by Panelbase for The Sunday Times has found only 18% are positive about how the Scottish Government has handled the ferries.
A further 50% of those surveyed thought ministers were doing a bad job.
Ferry fiasco at shipyard
Last week it emerged there is still not a finalised design for the two new ferries at Ferguson Marine.
One of the ferries – Glen Sannox – is due to serve the isle of Arran route.
At Thursday’s council election the people of Arran showed their anger at the delays by voting overwhelmingly for the Conservative candidate.
The SNP vote on the island plummeted to just 14%.
This comes as the new government permanent secretary John-Paul Marks signalled the Ferguson Marine shipyard cannot rely on the “direct award of contracts” to build government marine patrol vessels or ferries following the significant delays.
The shipyard has not won any new contracts for other work since it was nationalised back in 2019.
Mr Marks has encouraged “honesty over optimism” over the two new vessels, and the shipyard’s new chief executive David Tydeman said there was a “window of opportunity” to make improvements in the yard this year.