Crunch time approaches for Dunoon Pier
Council leader asks for CalMac vessel to serve new linkspan
AN inspection of Dunoon Pier has revealed that, unless remedial action is taken before the onset of winter, the vehicular access on and off the pier will no longer be able to cope with heavy vehicles.
The shock news was leaked to the Observer over the weekend, and confirmed when we contacted Bute and Cowal Area Committee chairman Brian Chennell.
The gravity of the situation has prompted the leader of the council to write a letter to the Scottish Executive asking for CalMac to allocate a vessel to serve the linkspan.
Councillor Chennell said: “The pier is subject to periodic surveys by engineers Arch Henderson. The most recent inspection of the structure has revealed deficiencies which need to be urgently addressed if the pier is to continue to operate as a terminal for large vehicles, although it will continue to carry traffic such as cars, vans and buses.
“Addressing these deficiencies will be very expensive.”
He went on: “This has caused the council a great deal of concern. We can see no logic in spending the sort of money needed to sustain the pier to cope with heavy vehicles when there is a brand-new linkspan sitting a couple of hundred yards away which needs only ships to make it operational.
“On that basis the council leader, Alan Macaskill, wrote last week to the Transport Minister, Tavish Scott, outlining the situation, and asking that the matter be rectified by allocating a suitable CalMac vessel to get the linkspan commissioned as soon as possible.”
Councillor Chennell emphasised that there was no risk to the public. He explained: “However, we are concerned that further deterioration may be caused by heavy vehicles transiting it, high winds and rough seas.
“If we don’t address the issue over the next few months then the pier won’t be operational for heavy vehicle access this coming winter.
“To restore the access totally would cost around £1m. We are not contemplating doing that, but even the level of necessary repairs will take a great deal of money to carry out. If there is no other option, then we will have to carry out the necessary work, but the council believes that there is no logic in spending further public money on bringing the structure up to standard if the new linkspan is just months away from coming into operation.”
However, any possibility of using a CalMac ship looks pretty remote.
CalMac spokesman Hugh Dan MacLennan said: “There are only two vessels suitable for this route, the Bute and the Coruisk. Both of them have dedicated routes, the Coruisk on Mallaig-Armadale, and the Bute on the Rothesay-Weymss Bay route, and would not be available.
“There’s also a question mark over whether the linkspan is actually ready to receive vehicle traffic - my understanding is that the lighting is not yet operational.”
Western Ferries’ Managing Director Gordon Ross confirmed that the council had not been in touch regarding the issue, and added: “We have discussed the use of the new linkspan in the past, but the council has always made it clear that any decision was dependent on the outcome of the tendering process.”
An Executive spokesman said that Cllr Macaskill’s letter had yet to receive attention. “It was only posted on May 25 and as we were on holiday on Friday and Monday, the Minister (Tavish Scott) has only just received the letter and will respond in due course,” he said.
However, there was still no indication on when the ‘preferred bidder’ would be chosen, despite previous assurances from Tavish Scott that this would be announced ‘in the Spring’.
The spokesman said: “The Executive has recently finished evaluating the information that was submitted to us by the three organisations that remain in the bidding process for the Gourock-Dunoon route.
“We are now considering which organisations should be taken to the next stage of the process and invited to submit a technical bid.
“Once this process is complete, we hope to be in a position to invite technical bids shortly.”
The delay in the process also makes it likely that the timescale for the opening of the new service will slip even further.


Kilbride quarry plan on hold
SCOTTISH Water’s plans for a sewage treatment plant at the old quarry site on Bullwood Road, Dunoon have been put on hold - and councillors believe that they are having second thoughts over a whole range of issues, including the highly controversial Innellan primary treatment plant.
The water company intended to lay its plans before Argyll and Bute Council on June 8, but has asked that the matter be held over for a month.
This follows a meeting of the leader of Argyll and Bute Council, Alan Macaskill, and the four area committee chairmen with the head of the council’s planning department. A proposal by Kirn councillor Brian Chennell that Scottish Water be asked to look at the ramifications of QS3, a Scottish Executive directive, was passed on to Scottish Water.
Councillor Chennell explained: “QS3 makes more finance available to take into account future residential developments. Scottish Water has up to now argued that it can only take into account developments which are in the pipeline. However, the directive has changed all that.
“If Kilbride Quarry is to become the site of the secondary treatment plant, then we have to be convinced that it is of sufficient capacity for future as well as present use. We also hold to the view that if the capacity exists, Innellan should be linked into the Kilbride scheme. There are also outstanding issues in relation to the plant, such as odour control.
“Under the local plan there is scope for 172 new houses; however the demolition of Spence Court means that there are potentially a further


AROUND ARGYLL
Oban
A traffic census carried out by Argyll and Bute Council in Oban last week caused long tailbacks. Interviewers on three routes going into the town stopped drivers and asked them about their journey and its purpose. Other drivers were handed cards to fill in and post back.
The survey was carried out to determine traffic levels and patterns in the town. The council said that the lack of warning was crucial to the census so that people did not change their normal driving habits.
The Tobermory lifeboat went to the aid of a cruise ship which ran aground on Clave Island in the Sound of Mull. The MS Island Sky got into difficulties after she dragged her anchor during heavy weather.
Undaunted by the fact that the 90-metre cruise ship weighed in at 4,200 tonnes, the Severn class lifeboat carried out a successful operation to refloat her.
Mid Argyll
The headteacher of Inveraray Primary School has been shortlisted in this year’s education Oscars. Anne Paterson is in the running for the Headteacher of the Year prize when the fifth annual Scottish Education Awards take place on June 2. The awards recognise achievements in education across a wide range of categories, and reward the winner of the best Headteacher category with a personal cheque for £500 and a trophy, plus an additional £1,000 for their school.
An unpleasant odour which plagued Inveraray during 2003 and 2004 has reportedly returned. The pong initially made itself apparent around the A83 area near to the golf course after Scottish Water completed work there in 2003.
The utility returned in 2004 to sort out the problem and it was thought that a solution had been found, but it appears that the odour has returned. There has also been a report of similar problems near Scottish Water’s new system in Tarbert.
Campbeltown
The first phase of new housebuilding is nearing completion on the island of Gigha. A mix of homes, from one to four bedrooms, is being built to house islanders and new business owners and some of the new householders have already moved in.
The Isle of Gigha Trust, which administers the island, wanted the new housing to alleviate the cramped conditions facing some islanders, especially young adults, who often had no choice but to live with their parents in overcrowded accommodation.
Electricity for the new homes and the rest of Gigha is being provided by three wind turbines, which form Scotland’s first community-owned windfarm.
Work is finally getting underway on Kintyre’s new golf course. A schedule of works, beginning with the construction of water wells will begin in the summer, and it is hoped that the first golfer will tee off in 2008.
The developer of the course said that it will provide a much-needed boost for the area, with new jobs and an added attraction for tourists, and would mean that Kintyre would boast two of the best golf courses in the world.
Sanda Island has been chosen to represent Scotland in an Irish Festival of the Sea. The two-week long festival links Scotland and Ireland, with celebrations taking place both north and south of the Irish border.
Sanda, which lies off the tip of the Kintyre peninsula, lit a beacon last Saturday. Dick Gannon, owner of the island, said that he and his wife Meg were honoured to represent Scotland in the event.
Bute
Work is about to begin on the construction of 34 new houses for Fyne Homes on the Ballochgoy estate in Rothesay. The project will see a mixture of rented and shared ownership properties being built and will also see eight sites being sold for self-build housing, a first for the Rothesay-based housing association.
The project is part of a £4.5 million regeneration of Ballochgoy, which will see the building of affordable two and three-bedroom homes designed by Glasgow-based architects Anderson, Bell and Christie.
The new arrangements for traffic on Rothesay Pier are continuing to cause problems. A Bute community councillor claimed that he was imprisoned on the pier for seven minutes when a big truck got stuck on the ferry. A decision to close the pier access gates when a ferry is berthed was alleged to have been made at the request of the island’s three councillors. But one of the three, Robert MacIntyre, said that this was not the case, nor had the the harbourmaster or the police been consulted either.
The Bute Ferry Users Group have written to CalMac and Argyll and Bute and Inverclyde Councils with a list of health and safety concerns, among them the subject of car access to the pier.


Argyll and Bute school project wins UK award
With its private sector partner ABC Schools, Argyll and Bute Council’s Public Private Partnership/Non-Profit Distributing Organisation (PPP/NPDO) Project has won the fiercely contested ‘Award for Innovation’ at the recently held Public Private Finance Awards ceremony in the Grosvenor House Hotel, London.
Councillor Dick Walsh, Chairman of the NPDO Project Management Board, said: “I am absolutely delighted that the council has won this award. For our small rural council to successfully beat off fierce competition from other excellent projects from throughout the UK is both a recognition of the council’s vision and an accolade to the commitment it has shown to this ground-breaking project.”
Councillor Walsh continued: “The Argyll and Bute NPDO model has attracted interest from throughout the UK and on the international front enquiries have been received from the USA, Holland and Japan. Already two other Scottish Councils, Falkirk and Aberdeen City, are committed to using the Argyll and Bute model and NPDO approach”.
The NPDO partnership will deliver ten new build schools across five sites in Argyll and Bute by the end of 2007, and will then operate and maintain these over the next 30 years.
The Council’s Director of Community Services, Douglas Hendry, praised the work that has gone into the project. “This recognition of the Council’s NPDO Project is well deserved. This project has overtaken and resolved deep rooted and significant infrastructure problems with the school estate we inherited at the time of local government reorganisation. I am pleased, not only for our project team, but for our teachers and pupils who have put up with poor and inadequate buildings for so many years. New schools are being built as we speak and we are confident of reaching a final agreement on Hermitage Academy very soon.”
When completed, sixty percent of all secondary pupils and thirty three per cent of all pupils will be housed in these brand new schools which will also have facilities available for use by community groups.
Mike Geraghty, the council’s Project Director who conceived and promoted the idea of using the NPDO approach received the award on behalf of the council together with Charles McLeod of Navigant Consulting who represented ABC Schools.
Commenting on the Council’s success at the Awards, Mike said: “This award is for the whole council which have been steadfast in their support for this project despite some disappointments along the way.”
Mike stressed that thanks were due to the members of the project team who had worked so hard for so long to deliver this project. “No one could have asked for a better team and it is a tribute to their effort, commitment and resilience that we have won this award. Mike continued: “There are a number of other council colleagues and private sector advisers who worked with us behind the scenes to help deliver this project and thanks are due to them also.”