Road row rumbles on

EMERGENCY repairs have at last re- opened Loch Awe’s £ 5 million timber haulage route.

But Avich and Kilchrenan Community Council has urged Green Power and Forestry Commission Scotland to speed up their negotiations and fix it for good.

Renewable energy developer Green Power constructed the West Loch Awe Timber Haul Route (WLATHR) three years ago, using £1 million of public money, to install the 20-turbine wind farm at Carraig Gheal.

As a community benefit, the 35.75km haul route was to be shared by Forestry Commission Scotland (FCS) to extract timber, diverting heavy lorries from the B840 and C30 single-track roads through Kilchrenan, Annat, Inverinan, Dalavich and Ford.

But angry villagers recorded hundreds of lorries rumbling past their homes each month from 4am to 10pm, and ‘traumatised’ tourists ‘risking their lives’ even cut holidays short.

Community councillor Christine Metcalfe began the meeting in Kilchrenan Village Hall on Tuesday May 17 by saying: ‘It can’t be denied visitors and residents in this area have borne the brunt of an unacceptable level of timber haul traffic.’

David Jardine, Forestry Commission Scotland’s district manager, agreed it was ‘ unacceptable’, but reassured: ‘ We’ve been able to get traffic back onto the WLATHR.

‘The [haul route] quality was deteriorating, so the hauliers wanted to use the public road. We put in emergency repairs to make a [haul route] they’re satisfied with.’