Success on the road front |
11/03/03 |
| The A848 Salen to
Tobermory road has been top of the agenda of the Mull And Iona Chamber of
Commerce and the chamber has been working with our local councillor,
Alistair MacDougall, to convince the authorities that the road should be
finished as soon as possible. The
following letter was sent to all members of the council committee that
decide the budgets, and at the end of February it was announced that £400,000
has been allocated and work has now started on the planning and legal
requirements of the road (the estimated costs of the “missing link”
being ten million pounds!!). In
addition, the letter has been sent to MP’s, MSP’s, MEP’s, Ministers
and other officials, and nearly all have replied to support the campaign Dear Councillor We are writing (on behalf of the business community of Mull and Iona) to you as a member of the Strategic Policy Committee of Argyll and Bute Council, and being partly responsible for the setting of priorities on the council's budget. As you will know, the upgrading of the A848 Craignure to Tobermory road has yet to be completed, and although it was started many years ago, there remains a short stretch of dangerous, potholed, substandard single-track road between the two finished ends. Mull and Iona Chamber of Commerce recognises the urgency to complete this road, as does HITRANS, and we would strongly request that you support the campaign to change the status from "non priority" to "priority" within the councils budget. This would allow the council to start the preparatory work required on route, land purchase and planning before putting forward proposals to the Scottish Executive and Europe. The urgency of this matter must not be underestimated. This unfinished road is stifling the economic and social life of the Island and is restricting the potential for future transport developments. As we understand it, to take advantage of existing EU funding arrangements that currently favours our area, this section should ideally be finished by the end of 2006, when different legislation will apply and make it much harder to get capital funding for projects such as this. However, with your support and help, we believe that this project could succeed. We already have support from Dr Jim Hunter, Chairman of HIE, George Lyon MSP, Alan Reid MP, Duncan Hamilton MSP and many others, and would be very grateful if you could take a minute or two to reply to this correspondence to indicate your agreement Looking forward to your reply. Yours sincerely Sandy Brunton (President) Mull and Iona Chamber of Commerce It appears that the preparatory work will take around a year to complete, and the chamber is now urging everyone to get behind the follow on campaign that is being co-ordinated by Salen to Tobermory Road Action Group (STRAG) chaired by Duncan Swinbanks. If the funding is not in place by the time all the legal work is completed, there will be little chance of ever getting the road finished as the EU funding required will soon be getting spent on the new EU members on the eastern edge of Europe that are generally poorer than us. Please get in touch with Duncan if you can write letters, hand out leaflets or have any ideas on how to get things moving.
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