Ferries set for introduction at Strome on Monday
11th January 2012
The Highland Council will introduce a car and a passenger ferry service between North and South Strome on Monday to combat the impact of the closure of the A 890 Lochcarron - Kyle/Plockton road due to the danger of rockfalls. The timetables for the two ferry services, which will have connecting buses, will be confirmed on Friday. The services will be free.
The ferries are needed as the indication is that the road will remain closed for another month.
The Council plans to ferry school children and commuters on a 61-passenger ferry, the Sula Mhor, a cruise boat which operates out of Plockton during the summer months.
Its first run in the morning will be exclusive to school children from the Lochcarron and Applecross areas, who attend Plockton High School. There will be further services for commuters. It is intended to run the passenger service Monday - Friday, with the possibility of a limited service on Saturdays.
It is also proposed to introduce the six-car turntable ferry, which is based at Glenelg, on Monday. It will shuttle between North and South Strome - a 10-minutge crossing - initially between 9 am and 5 pm each day of the week.
The Council is stressing that this ferry has limited capacity, being restricted to 6 cars and 12 passengers per journey and with a weight restriction of 10 tonnes.
Given the capacity limitation, the Council will be operating a priority system for travel, with emergency services, local utilities and local people having priority. At Lochcarron, cars will be mustered at the Golf Club car park. At South Strome, cars will be stacked on the approaches to South Strome.
Commuters from Dingwall, Inverness and further afield are asked to continue to use the diversion via the A 82 and A 87.
Meanwhile, pupils from the Lochcarron area are travelling to school by train all this week.
A Council spokesman said: "The indications are that the road, which has been closed since 22 December, will have to remain closed for at least another month in the interests of safety. We are in discussions with Network Rail to provide a diversion on the railway line, using sleepers, but this will take up to a month to put in place. This work will be a priority element of a wider contract we hope to let within the next couple of weeks for short-term remedial work. Our only other option is to provide a ferry service and plans are well advanced to introduce this on Monday 16 January.
"Due to the slipways at North and South Strome, there is a restriction on the type of ferry we can use and a six-car ferry has limited capacity. That is why we need to introduce a priority usage system, with emergency services and local utilities/people being given priority.
"We hope the public will appreciate that this service is very much to help the local community, who are feeling the effects of the road closure the hardest."
Related Businesses
Related Articles
At the Highland Council Economy and Infrastructure Committee. (Thursday 2 May 2024) Members had the opportunity to review the work the Council is doing to progress active travel and improve road safety before approving the next steps.
At the meeting of the Economy and Infrastructure Committee members had the opportunity to review the last two years of the Community Regeneration Funding Programme before agreeing changes to how the 2024/25 programme will be delivered. Committee Chair, Cllr Ken Gowans said: "Following a successful two years, it is a good time to review what has gone well and what can be done better so we can continue to build on success, and seamlessly move the focus onto how best to support the delivery of projects." "With 279 live projects and over £6million of committed funds still to be claimed, there is no doubt as to the value and impact of the programme's potential.
The Highland Council's In-House bus service pilot project was launched in January 2023. The success of its first year of operation in delivering savings and creating a valued and reliable service was highlighted at today’s Economy and Infrastructure Committee.
Members of Highland Council's Economy and Infrastructure Committee today (2 May 2024) approved the local authority's draft Ecology Strategy and Action Plan which will now move forward to an 12-week public consultation. The Ecology Strategy sets out an ambitious set of actions to tackle biodiversity loss and address the ecological emergency.
Economy and Infrastructure Committee members today (2 May 2024) agreed to direct £100K from the Council's share of the UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF) to fund a new staff training programme at the Inverness Castle Experience. The funding will enable the project team to provide specialist visitor attraction training to young people identified through partners at Developing the Young Workforce (DYW) and the University of the Highlands and Islands (UHI).
The Housing and Property Committee met on Wednesday 1 May 2024 and noted the Housing Service performance report 2023/24 that met the agreed priorities and associated initiatives in the Local Housing Strategy 2023-2028. The report highlighted a number of achievements in 2023/24 in increasing housing supply.
Kate Lackie, Malcolm MacLeod and Allan Gunn have been appointed as Assistant Chief Executives with The Highland Council. Convener of the Council, Cllr Bill Lobban said: "I am delighted to say that Kate Lackie, Malcolm MacLeod and Allan Gunn have been appointed as Assistant Chief Executives with The Highland Council.
As intimated in Highland Council's budget plan, a new senior management structure is to be implemented following approval by Council 14th March. It reconfigures the senior management team into two layers, rather than three and brings Highland Council into line with other benchmarked authorities.
Today, Morrison Construction introduced some of their local apprentices who are working on the UK Governments' Levelling Up Funded refurbishment project at the Northern Meeting Park in Inverness. All these apprentices have been recruited from the Highland area.
The by-election to elect a councillor to represent Ward 19 - Inverness South on The Highland Council has been won by Duncan Cameron McDonald - Independent who was one of the eight candidates who contested the vacancy. Voters in the ward went to the poll yesterday (Thursday 11 April) and the by-election count was held this morning in The Highland Council Headquarters in Inverness.