Call for Oban relief road

A RELIEF road around Oban ‘has to be back on the agenda’, councillors told Argyll and Bute infrastructure manager Fergus Murray last week.

Discussing the development plan for Argyll and Bute, and in particular Oban, Lorn and the Isles area, councillors said the need for a ring road circumnavigating the town was ‘urgent’ and needed to be on the agenda so government funding could be sourced to make it happen.

While the original plan for a ring road was dropped some years ago, some councillors would now like to see it reinstated.

One plan for the road would have seen it come off a new roundabout on the A85 near to the Pennyfuir cemetery site. The road would then have followed a route around the back of the town, finally coming into Oban beyond the traffic lights at the high school yet near the site of the new high school.

The new Oban High School has been planned taking into account the longer-term plans for the ring road. Councillor Kieron Green, Oban North and Lorn, raised the matter in response to a development plan being discussed for the area.

He said that while the plan has never been universally popular, the lack of roads through the town means the need to discuss the subject was becoming increasingly ‘critical’.

Mr Green continued: ‘ We need to be pushing for a relief road that goes around the town.

‘As the traffic to the ferry has increased so has the use of the road through Oban.

‘At times that makes it impossible to move around.’

A relief road was part of the original projects for the Oban CHORD project back in 2006 but was moved onto a longer term plan after Stafford Street and the town centre improvements were undertaken.

The road is understood potentially to cost somewhere in the region of £10million to £ 25 million, a bill that would mean government funding, rather than local authority funding, was sought for the area.

Councillor Iain MacLean, Oban North and Lorn, said: ‘ This is the issue that we need to address.

‘Oban is a gateway to the islands and as business grows then we will need to make sure our infrastructure is suitable.

‘ There is no doubt about it – we need a relief road and we need it back on the agenda so that funding can be negotiated to drive this one as hard as we can.’

Mr Murray said councillors’ comments would be taken into account as the local development plan was written.