Islanders ambush ministers to fix Jura’s road

MAJOR repairs are planned for Mull, Lismore, Islay, Kilchrenan, Dalavich, Coll and Jura, where last week desperate islanders ambushed ministers to help fix its ‘dangerous’ only road.

Argyll MP Brendan O’Hara hoped to update islanders about his Islay and Jura summit with Humza Yousaf, Minister for Transport and the Islands, introducing Holyrood’s upcoming Islands Bill, on Wednesday last week. But instead a quarter of Jura’s growing population of 230 packed Craighouse Care Centre to plea for help to repair their single-track road.

Jura GP Dr Abby Beastall said: ‘Potholes are more than an inconvenience – they are now dangerous. There are several deep potholes leaving vehicles nowhere to go apart from a narrow verge and a ditch. This concerns us about road safety, far from a hospital with trauma facilities.’ Transferring a patient to the landing site was now ‘very uncomfortable and difficult’, she added.

‘The Islay fire service response was demonstrably slower at a recent incident, which gives us concern that if the [lone] Jura doctor needs back-up from the Scottish Ambulance Service based on Islay, this will also be delayed.’

Neil Gow, a volunteer firefighter, added: ‘For me, as a citizen, you have to leave 10 minutes early, or risk damage to the vehicle or yourself. The emergency services cannot leave 10 minutes earlier. In an emergency, every minute counts. To be slowed by a lack of maintenance is unacceptable.’

Jura’s community council chairman, Donald Ewan Darroch, hailed the 30-mile island’s ‘fast expanding economy’, including ‘£45m-50m’ invested at Ardfin Estate where a new 18-hole golf course was built and its ‘growing working population’. But he asked if the public sector was ‘capable of keeping up with the pace?’.

Argyll and Bute Council needs £198m to bring its 2,300km road network up to A1 condition, or £11m per year just up to ‘average’. In February’s budget, councillors agreed to an extra £8m to its £6.6m road maintenance programme.

Council papers reveal £360,000 will go to improving Jura’s A846 from Feolin ferry to beyond Craighouse, but one islander questioned if this was enough.

Read the full story at www.obantimes. co.uk to see where the roads budget will be spent in Argyll.