Still no opening date for maritime centre

WORK on Oban’s delayed new maritime visitor centre is progressing well, according to Argyll and Bute Council.

The opening was expected early in the New Year, after a redesign and four years in the pipeline but there is still no official date.

The £1.6 million building on the town’s North Pier is designed to complement the new pontoons, catering for marine tourists from cruise passengers to kayakers, yachters and sealife day trippers.

The new centre, attached to the category B-listed Columba Hotel, will provide public toilets and showers, secure lockers, waiting areas for cruise ship passengers and coach parties, waterfront office space and the council’s harbour master’s office.

A council spokesman told The Oban Times: ‘The project is continuing to progress well and we will be in touch as soon as we have a date for the handover.’

The centre, on the site of the former White Building built in 1902 as the Steam Packet ticket office, is expected to increase visitor numbers with an estimated benefit of around £20 million to the area over the next 25 years.

It has been in development since 2013, with Argyll and Bute Council granting planning permission to the architects’ designs in August 2014.

The plans were finally approved in July 2016, and the old White Building was demolished.

According to the project plan, the maritime visitor centre was due to be operational in July 2017, alongside the new pontoons and breakwater.