We’ll launch a community buyout... of beautiful beach
‘One of the gems of Scotland’
MOST of us can only ever dream of buying our very own beach.
But one group of villagers are trying to do just that by snapping up a half-mile strip of golden sands.
If the sale goes through they will become the first community in Scotland to buy a beach.
The unusual bid for picturesque Tralee Beach will be launched this week by residents of Benderloch near Oban, Argyll.
They say the beach has been abandoned and neglected for years and that a community buyout is the best way to preserve it.
Linsay Chalmers, a development manager for Community Land Scotland, will host a meeting of the beach steering group tonight.
She said: ‘We have members who have bought beaches – such as Luskentyre on the Isle of Harris – as part of an estate buyout, but not a single beach.
‘In this case people feel it is important to them culturally, ecologically and economically. The meeting is to gauge the level of support and what options there are.’
Tralee, which attracts thousands of visitors every year, has been at the centre of a tug of war with private landlords and council planning bosses for nearly three decades.
In 1989 the beach made headlines when the then Highland landlord Hugh MacColl prohibited people from trespassing on his land by carving ‘a gaping chasm’ across the access road to the beach.
Argyll and Bute Council also caused consternation among locals when it allowed thousands of tons of sand and gravel to be extracted from the site to be used as infill for the £1.4million Oban Railway Pier.
But the new move by the community will see them aim to assume care of the beach themselves.
Villagers want to form a community trust to have a say on how the beach and woodlands nearby are developed. One plan would be to buy it under a Land Transfer Scotland initiative, provided the community gives its backing.
The present landowners live outwith the area and still have mineral rights for the beach and land owned by crofters.
Ian Shellcock, who owns three local businesses including a holiday company, said the beach was of ‘critical importance’ to the area.
He added: ‘It needs to be preserved for the businesses, future businesses, our children and the community. My three businesses depend on it – Benderloch is wrapped around it. It is one of the gems of Scotland.’
Mr Shellcock, who has been in the area for 34 years, said there was a lot of support to buy the beach, adding: ‘The best people to own it are the community.’