Islanders beg for help over tourist traffic ‘nightmare’

WITH its distinctive row of colourful houses overlooking boats bobbing in the Sound of Mull, Tobermory is one of the most popular tourist spots in Scotland.

But the island town is fast becoming a victim of its own success as it struggles to cope with an influx of camper and delivery vans.

Residents say even large cars are making space a premium on streets designed for the horse-andcart – and are desperate for new infrastructure to be put in place.

The community council says infilling part of Tobermory Bay could be a solution, helping to create more parking spaces, or a parkand-ride scheme above the town.

But Argyll and Bute Council instead plans to put parking restrictions in place, which locals believe will cause more chaos as tourists try to avoid any charges by leaving their vehicles in residential streets.

Jeanette Gallagher, who runs a fish and chip van on Main Street, said the roads built in 1788 for horse-andcart traffic now struggle to cope with the steady stream of large vehicles coming off the CalMac ferry.

Mrs Gallagher, who has traded in Tobermory for 30 years, said: ‘The street is so small and the CalMac pier is at the far end, so traffic has to come through the street.

‘There are 1,000 people in Tobermory and when the papers come in at midday people are flocking to the shop and it’s gridlocked, as delivery vans try to deliver.

‘There is going to be a serious accident. My 92-year-old mother, who uses a walking frame, fears for her life.’

Islanders blame a lack of parking spaces and signs to tell people where they can legally stop, leading to drivers parking indiscriminately.

Mrs Gallagher said: ‘People block the entrance to the pier and to our chip van.

‘There are no road markings at the town clock, so people use the area as a turning point. It’s a nightmare.’

Tobermory Harbour Association chairman Brian Swinbanks, the spokesman for a community committee which aims to find solutions to the traffic problem, said: ‘Visitors should be welcomed and encouraged to enjoy Mull.

‘The problems of saturation and encroachment are the result of larger vehicles and should be solved by new infrastructure and good management.

‘We are trying to find a way to accommodate the surplus of larger vehicles.’

Mr Swinbanks said a parkand-ride and park-and-walk scheme was one option, while another was to extend the Ledaig car park by infilling part of Tobermory Bay.

He added: ‘If we extend the car park in the bay there is the possibility of moving the ferry slip, because at the moment all the traffic for the Kilchoan ferry has to go to the north end of the street.

‘The alternative now is to find somewhere else for these larger vehicles to go – they should go overnight to camp sites and during the day we want somewhere for them to park and shop.

‘The town was built for the horse-and-cart, the road was built from 1788-1862. The car spaces here now are small, but cars are all larger than we had 20 years ago.

‘The problem is we are in the centre of the season and Argyll and Bute Council are proposing to put a road traffic order on the Ledaig car park and possibly the street.

‘Once you put the order in, they will have the right to charge or enforce, and the result of that will be displacement.’

Tobermory is not the only tourist hot spot to suffer for its popularity.

Safety fears were raised about Glenfinnan, Inverness-shire, by the National Trust for Scotland last year due to the number of vehicles heading to the area.

Skye also has been overrun with visitors, with locals saying the island’s small roads are being ‘clogged up’.

‘Going to be an accident’