Shortcut from Dunollie to seafront is no more

WALKERS in the habit of taking a shortcut down the side of a children’s nursery to get to Oban’s Esplanade are being told it is now a no-go zone.

People in the town have long used the path leading from the back of Corran Halls and Dunollie, through a gateway down into the grounds of the former Christchurch building, as a quick way of getting to the seafront but now it has to stop, says Jim Frew, who bought the old church three years ago and converted it into a nursery - investing around £400,000 in the project.

He said: ‘This has never been a right of way. A house belonging to the well-known McCaig family used to be on the site before the church was built here and they would not have wanted people cutting through the private grounds. Parishioners would have used it to get to the church but I bought it three years ago and this land is now part of our childcare facility.

‘Our big priority is to keep the children safe. We can’t have anybody walking through here. We don’t want people using it as a short-cut, especially those who let their dogs do their business. Staff have politely been telling people.’

Mr Frew revealed he also has plans to build an extension onto the back of the nursery to make extra space when the Scottish Government doubles the number of free childcare places after 2020.

It will also add to the 12 jobs he created at the nursery, which was rated as overall good by the Care Inspectorate last October.

The conversion on the grade B-listed building took almost two years to carry out, including replacing 600 tiny squares of obscured glass with clear glass so the children could enjoy a view of Oban.

A gate that Mr Frew reinstated is kept open during the day time for staff and parents’ use only and is locked at night.

The Oban Times contacted Mr Frew after a letter to the editor questioned the nursery’s right to ban access.

A spokesperson for Argyll and Bute Council said: ‘We have no evidence that this is a public right of way at present so the landowner can lock the gate.’

Only if the public sent enough evidence to prove they had used the path for more than 20 years uninterrupted would the matter be passed to the council’s legal services team to decide if the route could be claimed as a public right of way.

Access to the town’s sensory garden at the front of Rainbow Childcare is still open to all, from the Esplanade side.