OT Gibraltar Street designs scrapped as ‘unaffordable’

The council’s latest design to revamp Gibraltar Street in Oban has been dropped, a planning chief says, because inflation has made it too pricey, writes Sandy Neil.

Argyll and Bute Council had plans for a £260,000 improvements to Gibraltar Street, the main walkway between Oban town centre and Lochavullin Industrial Estate, which includes big stores such as Tesco, Aldi, M&S, and Homebase.

They were due to start this year. The council held a consultation on the first designs in June 2022, and then a second consultation on “considerably different” designs in November, this time only on council land.

The new design cut a popular local patisserie’s outdoor seating, and created a public picnic area across a winding path, which, the owner said, waiting staff could not safely cross carrying hot food and drink.

Oban North and Lorn councillor Kieron Green, policy lead for planning, informed Oban Community Council on Monday (February 27): “It would cost more than £250,000 now, which is why we can’t go ahead with it.

“Over the last year there has been significant inflation, and as a result the plans that were originally produced are now unlikely to be affordable within the budget.

“It’s not the case that the project won’t go forward completely, it’s just that it won’t look like what’s been consulted so far.

“Hopefully there will be some work done on Gibraltar Street, but it’s likely to be of a much smaller scale than had gone out to consultation.

“There’s nothing firm that has been produced at the moment. The plans which were drawn up are unlikely to go ahead, because it won’t be able to be afforded within the £250,000.

“So they are now looking at what is possible to do within that to improve the environment around Gibraltar Street. And the scale of that is unlikely to raise the issues which came forward during the consultation.”