"Sorry doesn't pay my bills, keep my staff in jobs, or put food on the table for my children."

Today, Thursday August 31, will be the 87th day this year without a Corran Ferry across Loch Linnhe, run by Highland Council.

 

We asked 50 peninsular businesses how it is impacting them. Here are just a few of their "desperate" replies, reporting thousands lost, firms closing, people leaving, and a "local recession" if the problem is not solved soon.

 

Luke Alexander, owner of The Inn At Ardgour, said: "When the ferry is off and there is no passenger ferry crossing the Narrows, we have lost £1350 per day which is 45 per cent of our turnover. When the passenger ferry runs instead of the car ferry, we have lost £450 per day which is 15 per cent.

 

"Sorry doesn't pay my bills, keep my staff in jobs, or put food on the table for my children. My family will and have already gone without."We want compensation. Someone or some people have messed up and need to be held accountable. We are a small rural community and they do not care. 2,000 people out here don't matter."

 

Andrew Cameron, co-owner of Loch Shiel Garage, Acharacle, said: "The Corran Ferry situation is now beyond crisis point. The downturn for all businesses, our own included, is now having more impact on us than it did through COVID.

 

"As soon as the ferry goes off for a prolonged time we are seeing an average 45% down turn in our breakdown recovery work. The lack of a ferry is costing us in excess of £5,000 a week.

 

"We have been totally let down by the local council. This ferry is a lifeline for our area, and there is not one person living here that is not affected by this.

 

"This situation can not carry on any longer, something has to be done for a permanent solution immediately before the area fails to recover from this."

 

Paul and Anita Borthwick of Salen Jetty Shop said: "Our business is losing £250 to £350 per day when the ferry is off. We have lost most of the day trippers, and people coming to the area are confused by the signage or put off by the extended travel time. There should be financial compensation."

 

Graeme Cox, director of Ardgour Trading Company Ltd, Ardgour House, said he was down "around £30k all told". "The unbelievably negative impact that the ferry fiasco has caused will inevitably cause a short to medium term drop in people taking the risk of booking accommodation on the peninsula. If it continues, this will be long term. Businesses will fail and we will face our own local recession."

 

Karl Bungey, who runs Otter Adventures, Strontian, said: "87 days and rising. That is nearly a quarter of a year (92 days) without a ferry/crossing for motor vehicles. We lost the Easter tourism trade. We’re currently losing English school summer trade.

 

"We cannot carry on with a loss of business and money on the peninsulas that relates so heavily on tourism (it’s the principle employer in the region and brings in several million pounds per year).

 

"Turnover this year is down around 50 per cent, and likely to end the year around 45 per cent down on the previous year. In the years where we should be experiencing growth, we are seeing stagnation due to poor turnover figures and difficulties employing staff. This is not just down to the ferry but also the economic situation and the back of COVID years.

 

"I am questioning the viability of my own business in the light of the unreliability of a ferry connection and the costs of a crossing (£10 each way) putting day trippers off.

 

"The loss of reputation the peninsulas are receiving is going to have a longer term impact upon visitor’s decisions as to where to travel to next season (and probably beyond).

 

"I want the money to be used for a reliable and permanently accessible crossing on the narrows and infrastructure upgrades to support and encourage additional visitors to the peninsulas.

 

"This should start with a thorough consultation as to what type of crossing the residents of Ardnamurchan’ really want, rather than what the Highland Council are thrusting upon us, and what infrastructure upgrades would be needed across the region."

 

Tim and Ellie Caldwell, owners of Sunart Camping, said: "The campsite is down about 35 per cent overall, on Good Friday 60 per cent of bookings were cancelled or just never showed up. Compensation would help."

 

A restaurateur said: "Our lunch trade has been decimated. Our main focus has been dinner service, and we are reliant on other businesses, specifically accommodation providers. I know of at least two in the village that have either closed or are selling."

 

"Everyone is in the same boat," another accommodation owner told us: "We have had another cancellation this morning because of the ferry: four people for two nights. I cannot keep going with staff. How do they expect us to survive?"

 

Laura Harvey, owner of Otterburn Bed & Breakfast, Strontian, said: "When the ferry first broke down in April, I had a number of cancellations and was unable to fill ‘gaps’ in May which is usually my very busiest month.

 

"Since then, every time the ferry has broken down, forward bookings for the B&B tend to dry up (late September and October are now looking very quiet) as public confidence in being able to access the West Highland peninsulas dwindles.

 

"Once we have a reliable ferry in place, I want the Highland Council to launch a huge marketing campaign to tell everyone that the West Highland Peninsulas are easily accessible again to make up for the great damage that has been done for our reputation as an accessible tourist destination.

 

"I want free ferry travel for a year for locals to make up for having to spend extra time and fuel going around the loch.

 

"After the fourth year in a row of difficult financial times and with both of the businesses that feed our family affected, we are wondering how much longer we can go on like this. If things don’t improve next year, we may reluctantly have to consider alternative ways of earning an income which may require us to move away from the area as local job opportunities are minimal.

 

"On their website, the Highland Council refers to the Corran Ferry as a ‘lifeline connection to the communities’ and yet its handling of the ferry crisis HC has dealt the area a potential death blow."

 

Replying to a letter from Acharacle community councillor Joanne Matheson, THC's Executive Chief Officer Infrastructure and Environment, Tracey Urry, said: "We have been very clear that there is no compensation scheme available. Discussions have taken place with Scottish Government who have also confirmed there is no compensation scheme payable.

 

"I appreciate some residents will be disappointed but unfortunately, with a significant projected revenue loss for the Corran Ferry Service in 2023/24 there is no scope for the Council to subsidise residents and local businesses and I will not reconsider my position on this."

 

Meanwhile, six "frustrated" community councils of Acharacle, Ardgour, Morvern, Nether Lochaber, Sunart and West Ardnamurchan formed the Corran Action Group to give voice to their communities after "months of being ignored by Highland Council".

 

"Repeated failures this year of a small reserve vessel at the Corran crossing in Lochaber, have left the communities with a restricted service, insufficient capacity and massively increased travel distances," the joint statement said.

 

"Patients can’t attend medical appointments, teachers are unable to get to work, businesses are closing down due to lack of trade and some deliveries haven’t been getting through since last autumn."

 

Andy Tilling, Chair of Acharacle Community Council who called the meeting, said: “We’ve been demanding that Highland Council fulfil its obligation and provide us with a reliable crossing service for months, but they just don’t seem to understand the drastic impact this situation is having.

 

"They have an ambitious proposal for electric ferries and new infrastructure which will take years to deliver, but our communities are hurting now and we simply won’t survive another few years like this.  I am hearing more and more people saying they have no alternative but to move out of the area.”

 

Even if THC's bid to the UK Levelling Up Fund (LUF) is successful, "it will arrive too late", he said. "Our communities need a solution now, and we won’t sit by and watch them collapse. We can’t survive another year like this, let alone several more years.”

 

The Corran Action Group is demanding financial support is put in place to help businesses avoid going under; residents are compensated for the additional cost and inconvenience of undertaking their normal daily lives, and Highland Council starts working immediately on a contingency plan to ensure the reliability of the crossing should the LUF bid fail, as only 26 per cent of bids so far have been successful, it says.

 

The Highland Council did not respond by our deadline. Scotland's new transport minister Fiona Hyslop met THC and community councils in Ardgour on August 23. Locals called it a 'closed door meeting' on social media.

 

"This meeting was not advertised to the communities and businesses the ferry fiasco has impacted," said one. "If we knew about the meeting, we could have organised a protest."

 

A second said: "It’s a real shame every single one of us affected by the Corran Ferry debacle weren’t aware of the meeting. Perhaps if we had all of us could have attended and maybe got the message across as to how desperate a situation it actually is!"

 

The following day, The Oban Times interviewed Ms Hyslop on her visit to the Northern Lighthouse Board in Oban. We asked: "The Highland Council's ferry fleet is aging and failing, despite a heroic workforce. The Highland Council has said sorry. Should the council compensate businesses losing money and closing as a result of their failure?"

 

Ms Hyslop told us: "I perfectly understand the frustrations that they have, but it's a Highlands Council responsibility.

 

"There's a difficulty in looking at direct transport compensation, because it doesn't exist across different boards, and I'm not gonna ask them to do something that the Scottish Government isn't doing as well."

 

You can also read Ms Hyslop's reply to our question if the Scottish Government should compensate for CalMac ferry disruption, here.