Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Moray Council’s beleaguered dredger returns to the action after six months tied up

The Selkie dredging at Buckie Harbour.
The Selkie dredging at Buckie Harbour.

Moray Council’s beleaguered dredger has returned to operation after being tied up at a harbour for six months.

The Selkie was out finally clearing silt again from its home port at Buckie on Friday and Saturday.

Yesterday, assertions were made that the £2.5million vessel will begin soon be “earning its keep” once again after staffing issues forced its inaction.

It is understood a new crew has been put together for the dredger after applications to find a new skipper were invited by the council in December last year.

Last night, Buckie councillor Gordon Cowie said the vessels return to action would come as a relief to many coastal communities.

He said: “It’s good to see it up and running again because it’s become a bit of a laughing stock with some people.

“It’s going to start clearing the channel at Buckie Harbour before it gets out to Burghead and all the harbours along the coast.

“Hopefully it gets back to normal now and it starts earning its keep.”

The Selkie was launched in 2016 amid hopes it would save the council money by preventing its need to hire a dredger from elsewhere while also generating an income by contracting it out to do jobs elsewhere.

Senior council figures predicted the 90ft craft would soon be paying for itself when it was launched by generating an order book from across the north of Scotland.

However, while the Selkie has been moored at the quayside since last year its predecessor the Shearwater, which was sold for scrap by the authority seven years ago amid claims it had become “a liability”, has been dredging at nearby Cromarty.

Yesterday, Buckie councillor Sonya Warren explained that the vessel had already begun much-needed work at the town’s authority-owned port.

She said: “It’s going to be good to have our harbour being dredged again. It’s certainly much-needed in Buckie.

“Just getting it operational again will mean the council will be saving money by not having to hire in another dredger to do the work. Hopefully, it can start bringing in money from elsewhere again in the future.”