Ferry parking charges spark widespread fury

Residents will be forced to buy expensive permits while tourists face additional costs for holiday

HUNDREDS of people have signed a petition to halt plans that would impose widespread parking charges on one of the west coast’s most popular islands.

Argyll and Bute Council is consulting over proposals to start charging £1 per hour at car parks at Tobermory, Criaignure and at Fionnphort, where people catch the ferry to the Isle of Iona.

Campaigners say holidaymakers spending a week on Iona will have an extra £70 added to the cost of their trip, while residents may have to pay for expensive parking permits.

Business owners have already expressed fears they will see a downturn in trade, while they also worry residential and main streets will become clogged with those trying to avoid ticketed spaces.

Hundreds have already signed a petition against the proposals, with the man behind it, Neil Morrison of Macgochan’s bar in Tobermory, saying: “Argyll and Bute council are looking to cripple the fragile economic future of Mull with their charged parking scheme.

“Whatever vehicles they don’t manage to discourage will then be displaced from our car park on to Tobermory’s already overcrowded main street, causing mayhem.

“Introducing parking charges with no real understanding of the possible repercussions is nothing but uneducated folly.”

He has called for a full study of the Island’s parking needs.

A man dressed in a banana costume was rescued from freezing water after he fell into Stornoway harbour.

One passer-by said the casualty jumped over the railings at the port’s South Beach quay in the outer harbour in the Isle of Lewis on Friday night.

Thanks to swift action from his friends and paramedics, the man survived the plunge into the icy water.

The man and his friends were at the nearby bus station, next to the CalMac ferry terminal, when he went into the sea after 9pm.

His friends threw him a lifebelt and he managed to tug it over his head and down his body.

Using the attached rope, they then dragged him to the rock-fill

“He must have been at some fancy dress event”

embankment at the ferry terminal.

Ambulance staff were quickly on the scene and helped recover him from the water.

The shaken reveller was treated in the ambulance before being taken to the Western Isles Hospital. He was later discharged.

The bystander said: “The man was wearing a banana suit and he must have been at some fancy dress event. Perhaps it was for Halloween.

“He was lucky as it was very cold and if the tide had been out it could have been worse.”

A spokesman for Stornoway Coastguard rescue team said: “Stornoway Coastguard operation centre requested the assistance of the team after being alerted to a person in the water.

“As the team were mobilising, we were notified that he had been rescued by paramedics and bystanders and conveyed to Western Isles Hospital.”