Claims Mull Rally led to ‘dangerous’ 100 car queue at Fishnish

Mull Community Council members voiced concerns about major congestion on the island's roads after this year's Mull Rally.

 

The 150 car rally took place between Thursday October 13 and Sunday October 16, with the sheer volume of traffic leaving the island on the final day proving a significant issue.

 

This saw a queue of more than 100 vehicles form at Fishnish as visitors waited to catch the ferry to Lochaline on the mainland.

 

At a community council meeting on Wednesday November 2, members provided feedback to event organisers when they were joined by Mull Rally's Clerk of the Course Richard Cruzier and resident liaison representative Gordon Milne.

 

Both representatives recognised this was an issue and Mr Cruzier said: 'It seemed worse than ever this year and there's definitely some more work to be done in terms of the Sunday morning.'

 

Mr Milne agreed stating the 'Fishnish queue was the worst I've seen it', while suggesting the congestion wasn't as bad at Craignure.

 

Council members weren't convinced the Craignure-Oban queues were any better, with one stating: 'There was a queue all the way from the village to the Isle of Mull Hotel.'

 

There was a general consensus these issues weren't prevented by CalMac's decision to schedule more ferry journeys to help facilitate return travel to the mainland.

 

Mr Milne said: 'CalMac managed to get 800 vehicles off the island on the Sunday and provided two additional sailings for the Isle of Mull.'

 

Another council member described their difficulty in booking a crossing to the mainland, despite some ferries not being full after some entrants and visitors decided to change their route home.

 

Pamela Maccoll said: 'We were trying to take livestock to a sale in Oban and were told there were no ferries running. There was space. People just hadn't cancelled their Craignure booking after deciding to take the Lochaline ferry instead.'

 

Concerns were also raised about being able to leave the island at short notice. John Maughan described the queues as 'dangerous' and said: 'I've received feedback that there should be something in place for residents to jump the queue if they need to get off the island on short notice.'

 

The community council is looking into ways to resolve the rally congestion.

 

One suggestion was to use a nearby forestry road to ease the bottleneck around the ferry terminal at Fishnish.

 

Another was to liaise with CalMac to organise another large vessel to sail from Craignure.

 

There was agreement, however, that the rally had brought several benefits to the Isle of Mull, with organisers thanked for their interaction with island schools in the build-up to the event.

 

Schools were visited by organisers before the rally with more than 400 hoodies were handed out to pupils.

 

It was also generally recognised at the meeting there had been improvements in spectator behaviour, particularly in terms of how much litter was left behind.