Joy for 'cut off' ferry campaigners
10/02/2010
Highland Council postpones repair plans to allow villagers access
Villagers on the West Coast of Scotland are celebrating after a battle to prevent Highland Council closing their life-line ferry link during the height of the tourist season proved successful.
Residents and businesses on the Ardnamurchan and Morvern peninsulas were adamant that plans to close the service for a month would have cut them off during a busy summer period.
Highland Council officials have now agreed to postpone the £65,000 repair works on the Nether Lochaber slipway until September.
The work will mean that the only access route for around 2,000 villagers, emergency services and industry vehicles such as timber lorries, will be a single-track road that snakes around
Ian Thornber, spokesman for the Joint Community Council Group formed to represent the five affected areas, welcomed the news but insisted the campaign is far from over. “It is good news. But we’d hoped they would put a system in place where they could still carry out the work and provide some service, albeit restricted.
"People accept that the work has to be done but a lot more thought has to be put into how to mitigate the problems this will cause for people living here. The extra costs involved and hardships are going to make life very difficult and I’m not sure if the council are really aware of that.”
Local concerns centre around access for emergency services, increased living costs and the impact on the tourism industry.
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