and BUTE COUNCIL BUTE and AREA COMMITTEE

DEVELOPMENT SERVICES 4 DECEMBER 2007

RURAL TRANSPORT GRANT 2007-08

1. SUMMARY

A request has come forward from the Marine Environment / Access sub group of “Destination Dunoon and Cowal” for funding towards a technical survey of the loch bed at Arrochar and in order to enable design and installation of pontoons for future ferry services. The purpose of this report is to seek approval to use unallocated Rural Transport Grant of £20,000 to part fund the proposal.

2. RECOMMENDATION

It is recommended that members agree the use of £20,000 Rural Transport Grant to provide partnership funding for the technical survey detailed below.

3. BACKGROUND

A group of local authorities in the West of , including Council, have been successful in obtaining £60,000 of funding from Strathclyde Partnership for Transport to study the feasibility of utilising the River Clyde for waterborne passenger travel. The Council has also been successful in having the area of the feasibility study expanded to include and Loch Goil.

It should also be noted that a ferry service, partly funded by the Council, operated between May and October 2007 linking Greenock, Helensburgh and Blairmore. There is a desire to extend the service to Lochgoilhead and also introduce an additional service to Arrochar. A summary of this year’s service is included in a separate report detailing rural transport grant expenditure proposals for 2008-09.

In addition to the feasibility study there is a need for a technical assessment of the two proposed pontoon sites at Arrochar and Lochgoilhead. The two sites fall into different Regional Transport Partnership areas and different Enterprise areas but there are financial benefits in commissioning surveys of both sites as one contract. For operational reasons it would be desirable to carry out the survey work early in the New Year. At Lochgoilhead there is already a smaller working pontoon on the site owned and operated by a local trust and this is their quiet period. From March activity on their pontoon increases as does activity from the adjacent moorings that would be affected by the work. This will be particularly true in 2008 when Easter falls in March. The expected cost of the survey is £60,000.

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Strathclyde Partnership for Transport have been approached for £30,000 to cover the Arrochar side and Argyll and the Isles Enterprise have been approached for £10,000 towards Lochgoilhead with the final £20,000 coming from the Council’s Rural Transport Grant, a percentage of which can be used for this type of project. Sufficient slack has occurred in this year’s Rural Transport Grant programme to meet this sum.

There has been a suggestion that prior to the technical assessment of the sites a feasibly study/business case should be commissioned. However, given the level of support for the project from a number of quarters, the preparatory work that has already been done and the established policy /strategic context for the project the view is that such a separate study is not required, would lead to unnecessary delay and the available finances would be better spent on preparing the technical specification. Dunoon and The National Park Gateway Strategic Development Framework and Action Plan which was commissioned by Argyll and Bute Council, Argyll and the Islands Enterprise and Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park Authority provides the strategic context for the project. The local communities are supportive through the community councils and local development trusts.

There is justifiable optimism that the technical survey will not throw up any unexpected difficulties (since functional marine access facilities were, or are, present at or close to the sites). There is a strong desire to commission and install the pontoons in time for new ferry services to commence at the start of the 2009 season. This is a challenging timetable.

In detail, the project is to have consultants prepare the plans to provide a landing pontoon, restrained by piles or anchor and chain system, for a new passenger ferry on the southern fringes of the Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park. The pontoon at Lochgoilhead should be capable of handling a ferry of 100 tonnes which can carry up to 150 passengers. It should be 25 metres long and 12.5 metres wide restrained by circular steel piles driven through the foreshore to bed rock. If it is found the sites are unsuitable for piles then an anchor and chain system will be considered as an alternative. At the Arrochar site only it is further proposed to provide 2 tie up dolphins, one at either end of the pontoon, to allow P.S. Waverley to tie up at the pontoon. The dolphins will be positioned to fender P.S. Waverley to prevent the ship from direct contact with the pontoon but allow embarkation and disembarkation from Waverley via the pontoon and bridge construction.

4. IMPLICATIONS

6.1 Policy – Consistent with Council’s core policy of providing access.

6.2 Financial – Cost contained within the Rural Transport Grant.

6.3 Personnel – None

6.4 Equal Opportunities – None

6.5 Legal – None.

For further information please contact D. Blades (01546 604193).

B Fletcher Transportation Manager

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