People urged to attend Oban Bay meeting

CMAL plans to ‘bulldozer’ through its bid to control all of Oban Bay, despite an ‘overwhelming’ majority vote for a trust port, the town’s business and tourism chiefs claim.

Now BID4Oban’s chief executive Andrew Spence has urged the public to attend tonight’s public meeting in Oban’s Corran Halls at 7.30pm (Thursday September 6) to ‘make OBMG listen and react with meaningful and constructive dialogue rather than attempt to bulldozer through its plans regardless’.

The row erupted after CalMac’s ferry- and port-owning sister company, Caledonian Maritime Assets Ltd (CMAL), sought to unite its and Argyll and Bute Council’s harbour authorities into one to ‘mitigate safety risks’ as marine traffic increases.

But in an online consultation, run by the CMAL-chaired Oban Bay Management Group (OBMG) which supported the bid, only seven per cent of 550 voters agreed, while 63 per cent opposed a single user managing the bay in favour of an independent trust.

The OBMG said it would now ‘explore this option while continuing to progress the early work necessary either for a trust port or extension of an existing harbour area’, to be discussed at tonight’s meeting.

Linda Battison, director of Oban and Lorn Tourism Alliance (OLTA), said: ‘It appears OBMG is not listening as it has so far failed to ditch its proposal despite public opposition and the overwhelmingly negative response to its plan for CMAL to control Oban Bay.’

The leaders of OLTA, BID4Oban and the Port of Oban Cruise Group added in a joint statement: ‘[We] are astounded the OBMG continues to champion this option while publicly declaring support for the establishment of a trust port.’

They urged people ‘to once again make their feelings known’ at tonight’s meeting, which Ms Battison feared would merely ‘reaffirm CMAL’s existing plans’.

She said the public would expect OBMG to ‘acknowledge the overwhelming opposition to this proposal and their acceptance that other options exist and will be explored with the stakeholder group’.

The statement said mariners on the Oban Bay Stakeholder Group, which met on August 29, ‘were clearly disappointed the plans had not been paused to allow the group time to do as requested by OBMG and “put up or shut up”.’ It said ‘the company response is merely to delay the timetable for submitting a Harbour Revision Order by a month or so’.

Lorna Spencer, CMAL’s director of harbours and current chair of the OBMG, said: ‘We have stated our support for a trust port. We will provide assistance to a viable stakeholder group and sufficient time will be given for the necessary research and preparation.

‘At the same time, we must progress the work required for an alternative option. The Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) expressed the need for timely action.

‘There is a formal legal process for all Harbour Revision Orders, which requires final approval of Scottish ministers.

‘The current programme provides for the formal process to commence in February 2019.

‘The OBMG will review that date and adjust as necessary following work on the viability of a trust port.’

Today Argyll and Bute Council’s Harbour Board will decide if it will continue to support CMAL’s expansion plans.