Kilmartin consults
CAR PARKING was debated at Kilmartin Museum last week.
PLANS are well under way for a new, improved £6.7 million Kilmartin Museum, but where should visitors park their vehicles?
It is a question of fundamental importance to the success of the museum’s expansion plans and, last week, coinciding with the general election, plans were aired at a community drop-in session.
Consultants have been looking at various car parking options, with one clear favourite emerging from the process. Some 35 visitors came along to the drop-in to speak to museum staff and consultant architect Andrew Pinkerton about the options.
Among various suggested sites dotted around Kilmartin, the preferred option is to expand the current parking beside the museum from 26 to 32 spaces and create a second parking area on church glebe land to the north of the village, close to the sewage treatment works and Kilmartin Garage.
The consultants noted that Kilmartin Museum has ‘expressed an interest’ in purchasing the land from the Church of Scotland, though ‘access is dependent on neighbouring landowners’.
If negotiations are successful, 30 parking spaces would be created beside the sewage works, with a footpath leading from there to the museum, linking with a route to the Glebe Cairn.
Mr Pinkerton said: ‘We need to have a rational basis for any decision we make on this. We want to demonstrate we’ve gone through a robust process of gathering views.’
If you would like to find out more or ex- press your views on the museum’s plans, contact Meg Haig by email at redevelopment@kilmartin.org or on 01546 510278.