Chamber News - |
January 2006 |
|
Local Transport Strategy The Mull and Iona Chamber of Commerce were invited by the Council to take part in a workshop to assist in the development of a Local Transport Strategy for Argyll and Bute Council area and two members from the Chamber travelled to Lochgilphead for the meeting. The Scottish Executive have asked all Local Authorities to prepare such a Strategy and this is being done from the points of view of: - our ENVIRONMEMT, SAFETY, our ECONOMY, INTEGRATION between different modes, and ACCESSIBILITY. The aim is to produce the Strategy by the middle of 2006, considering issues and points from all the different workshops. The Chamber took part in the workshop on the Economy. Amongst the conclusions reached were that, to be effective, the strategic planning horizon must be 20 years and the strategy bold. Scottish policies are Central Belt focussed and north of that there is an east-west imbalance in investment, which must be tackled by investment in transport infrastructure to redress this. ROADS. As all business sectors are almost totally reliant on road transport, roads are a major issue. Their poor condition, particularly A82, A83, A85, A816 and A848 and the fact that where improvements are made they are piecemeal was highlighted. Weight restrictions have massive cost implications. Congestion increases both journey times and costs. A programmed approach to improvements, tackling pinch points on strategic routes and establishing an integrated route network for heavy users should be a priority to reduce congestion and journey times alike. FERRIES. With 25 inhabited islands in Argyll and Bute, businesses face the additional on-costs of ferries. Problems arise from high fares, infrequent and limited sailings, and overnight berthing at mainland rather than island ports so that the first sailing is too late and the last too early. There is very little flexibility in varying traditional routes or ship design to meet the needs of tomorrow’s customers. This area now faces competition from businesses on Skye who have a road-equivalent-tariff across their toll-free bridge instead of the far more expensive ferry fares it replaced. AIR TRANSPORT (apart from the use of corporate helicopters) is very largely lacking in Argyll and Bute. A high quality (although high cost) service to the more remote parts of the area would probably be effective on the basis of time-utilisation of businessman and in-coming tourist arriving at Glasgow Airport alike. RAIL TRANSPORT appears to have few freight opportunities and tourism traffic is affected by lack of integration at hubs. There is virtually no commuting due to the inflexibility of the timetable. CYCLING as a form of transport would benefit from upgrading current cycleways and extending them to encourage commuting and to create a new tourist market. The Chamber of Commerce has “Transport” at the top of its agenda at the present time because we believe that no subject has currently a more critical bearing on the businesses of Mull and Iona and as a result, the Chamber raises the issue at every opportunity. We were therefore pleased to support the Council in preparing The Local Transport Strategy and to be invited to assist at one of the workshops. We look forward with interest to seeing the final document when it is published. We are also fully behind the KEEP MULL MOVING campaign coordinated by Mull Community Council, which is fighting to get our island roads more suited to the 21st century. |