£1 million funding shortage for Lochboisdale redevelopment 26/10/11
Stòras Uibhist is seeking an extra £1 million from Comhairle nan Eilean Siar for
the go-
The South Uist landlord is urging the council to borrow the cash and lend it on to fill the funding gap in the £10 million project.
Comhairle nan Eilean Siar has already committed £625,000 to the scheme while Highlands
and Islands Enterprise has awarded a £5 million grant. Storas’ initial application
for European funding was not robust but it succeeded in getting £1.9m after a stronger,
beefed-
The project has received planning permission despite concerns about serious harm to the high density of otters around the shore and affecting Marine Harvest’s salmon farm in the loch. Construction work will be illegal without an appropriate licence from SNH and the conservation agency admits the long term impacts on otters are unknown.
The present phase of the project includes a 1.26km road and two causeways to link Gasaigh Island with Lochboisdale through the Rubha Bhuailt peninsula. This will open up access to land for business development and community housing on Rubha Bhuailt, as well as creating infrastructure for the fisheries and aquaculture industries.
Earlier this year, it was revealed Storas’s chairman Angus Macmillan was privately involved in a secret proposal, rarely discussed at Storas’s board meetings, which could build a large seaweed processing factory on Gasaigh Island in 2014, after the roads and causeways are built.
Mr Macmillan is also one of two directors of Lochboisdale Development Ltd, the company which is receiving the £10 million funds for the wider industrial infrastructure and regeneration project. He also controls the Crooked River premises where a pilot seaweed processing scheme could start before relocating to Gasaigh.
Preliminary ground surveys started last week and detailed designs for the causeways, breakwaters, fishery pier and marina have been commissioned. The project would be tendered early in 2012.
A public meeting will be held during November to inform members of the community of the latest progress and begin the process of identifying the options for the next stages of the Lochboisdale Regeneration.
Councillor Peter Carlin said: “The award of planning permission is good news. This will revitalise Lochboisdale and give a vital boost to the local economy through improving facilities for tourism and fishing.”
Chairman Angus MacMillan said: “This project, which was first discussed more than ten years ago, will revitalise Lochboisdale to be the thriving hub of South Uist that it once was.
“The new fishery pier will provide safer and expanded facilities for local fishermen, there will be first class facilities for visiting leisure sailors and the project will help improve the amenity value of the existing Lochboisdale village. With access to Rhubha Bhuailte and Gasaigh, there will be significant opportunities to attract new businesses to the area.”
Chief executive Huw Francis said: “Securing planning consent is a major milestone that reflects the hard work of the staff at Stòras Uibhist and the important partnership of the community company with HIE and CNES to deliver the aspirations of the community buyout in 2006.
An Economic Impact Assessment of the project has estimated that the construction
phase of the project will create 32 jobs and close to 100 long-
But the scheme is not without local criticism with some feeling it may end up a white elephant and suggest there is no concrete analysis to substantiate the headline benefits.