Slipway plan has ‘rare’ tree for the chop
A standalone tree believed to be a rare specimen could be felled if plans to extend a Tarbert slipway are passed in their current form by council chiefs.
A planning application has been made by Tarbert Harbour Authority to extend the car park and slipway which serves CalMac’s Tarbert to Portavadie ferry service.
The redevelopment work would involve “extension of the vehicle marshalling area, relocation of waiting shelter, landscaping, tree planting and felling of one tree”.
The tree is thought to be a rare species of alder and was reportedly planted by the late Roger Larsen, once a nearby Tarbert resident to the slipway and a district officer working in North Kintyre for the Forestry Commission during the 1960s and 1970s.
A number of Tarbert residents have objected to the plan. Mary McNicol from Tarbert said: “The felling of the established, mature tree and the destruction of the beach next to the ferry slip are unacceptable losses to the community. There are very few mature trees left in the village.”
The application has attracted a range of opinions in the village, with one commenter
“generally in favour” of the application, but keen to see public toilets introduced as part of any redevelopment plan.
John Rushton wrote: “There should be public toilets provided within the existing application boundary, to be built at the same time as the proposed development.”
Prentice Seafoods, whose seafood processing building is an immediate neighbour of the ferry slipway car park, was neutral on the plan, but warned against disruption to its round-the-clock business.
A Tarbert harbour worker, who did not want named, said there had to be some compromise if the ferry stop’s capacity was to be increased, saying: “People have been saying for a long time we need to increase space at the ferry terminal, but then when it is put forward, some start saying ‘no you can’t cut this down or concrete that’. You can’t have it both ways.”
Tarbert Harbour Authority was approached for comment.
A decision is still to be made by Argyll and Bute Council. Visit the council’s planning portal at www.argyll-bute.gov.uk/ planning-and-environment/find-and-comment-planning-applications to view the plans.