Banners calling for ‘a new Corran Ferry now’ may soon line the roads from Lochaber to Highland Council’s HQ in Inverness and the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh, in a bid by campaigners on the peninsulas to avoid being left without a car ferry across Loch Linnhe again.
The Highland Council runs the Corran Ferry crossing at the Corran Narrows between Ardgour and Nether Lochaber. The main vehicle ferry, the 23-year-old MV Corran, left for its annual overhaul in October 2022, and only returned 12 months later.
The 48-year-old, smaller back-up vessel, MV Maid of Glencoul, broke down many times, lastly in August. Over the year, many local businesses reported crippling losses, with some even closing, and residents moving away from the area.
Ardgour Community Council met on November 9, for the first time since the MV Corran returned to service.
Community councillor Tricia Kennedy said: “There was a thank you that went out from a lot of people in the community to the rib and the bus, and the additional operators that helped out during the time when we had mitigation measures in place, and to the ferry boys themselves. We’re all glad that it’s back.”
But problems are far from over, the meeting heard. This summer Highland Council members ditched a plan to bid for two new electric ferries, estimated to cost £70.5million, in favour of a bid to the UK government Levelling Up Fund this year for £52million towards the cost of one new electric ferry. If successful, the new ferry is expected by 2028.
Community councillor Tricia Kennedy updated: “The council said they were expecting to hear about the opening of the Levelling Up Fund bid on November 21. The big outstanding issue is the repairs to the Maid.”
Highland Council’s latest update on the Maid, on November 13, said: “There is a 10- week lead in time on repair parts which are expected to be delivered in December. Due to the parts delivery timeline and ongoing system solutions by Kongsberg, completion of the work is forecast for early 2024 although every effort is being made to bring this forward as much as possible.”
Ms Kennedy moved onto a protest, organised by the Corran Action Group (CAG), at the Scottish Rural Parliament in Fort William this month, where a member Joanne Matheson secured a meeting with the Deputy First Minister Shona Robison.
Ms Kennedy said Ms Robison “seemed sympathetic to the position we were in, with having no back-up and having a prospective electric ferry in five years’ time, and felt that we definitely were in need of some action before then.
“The banners that were ordered by the Corran Action Group have arrived. Fifty banners have been ordered saying: ‘We need a new ferry now’. They have to be distributed around the area as widely as Inverness and Edinburgh.”
Fellow Ardgour community councillor Michael Foxley added: “I’ve spoken again to the chief executive of the council about using the £20 million underspend in the Inverness City Region Deal to pay for a second diesel ferry, which is the basic thrust of the argument now.”
Dr Foxley said that “whichever way you look at it, we need a second diesel ferry” in the short-term as a back-up to the MV Corran, and in the medium term as a back-up to an electric ferry.
He added: “I heard from somebody fairly high up in Highland Partnerships last week that it is actively under discussion.”