Jura for Argyll

Residents of Islay ad Jura are being asked to say how they think health services to their islands should be provided. Local doctors, nurses, ambulance staff and surgery staff are all contributing their ideas. Argyll & Bute Community Health Partnership (CHP) also wants to hear from island residents including, of course, those who act as carers.

The Partnership wants the widest possible range of responses to help in identifying the key issues to shape an action plan.

They have an online questionnaire for anyone on Islay and Jura to complete and they are asking people to work through the questions carefully, giving the most accurate answer possible and ticking the appropriate boxes. They would also really welcome brief comments in spaces where they ask for these. Filling out the questionnaire takes about 15 minutes to complete.

The Partnership is also interested in setting up an ongoing Focus Group to discuss the health needs of the community. A Focus Group is a representative group of people which meets from time to time and whose members give their honest reactions to questions put to them by the person chairing each session.

Anyone interested in taking part in a focus group - or who needs a print version of the questionnaire should phone Carol Muir on 07826859124 or email her at carol.muir@nhs.net

And our ferry may have played a part in it. The Tayvallich community, at the other end of our new link to mainland Argyll, has just got almost £200,000 from BIG Lottery toward their buy-out of the shop, post office and cafe in the village. The ferry from there to here has brought both of us new visitors and some more trade. That will have made a contribution to the success of their application to BIG. So - its only been running for a few months but the ferry has already had a real and measurable impact on our two communities. Long may it continue to do so. More please.

The Environmental Health department of Argyll and Bute Council is offering non-means-tested grants of up to £800 to people with private water supplies who are interested in improving them. Phone 01546 604131 for details and enquiries or go to the Private Water Supplies page of the Council’s website.

Seafood Extravaganza tonight - 7th August. All locally caught produce - lobster, langoustine, scallops, squat lobster and mackerel…to raise funds for Cancer Research.

The first of August was our Civic Reception in celebration of the first ferry direct to mainland Argyll for thirty six years. The Herald - in half a page of coverage of the event - has noted that a MacBrayne’s ferry called at Craighouse Pier for the last time in 1972. For Argyll has another news item on it and has carried several news items on the successful new ferry service and our other achievements. We’re on our way.

Civic Reception day went well, started off drizzly, but the sun came out for the funders return trip to the mainland, so they got to experience both kinds of journey. Our resident piper greeted the mainland visitors and the press, the Village Hall committee provided a delicious spread of cakes, sandwiches and nibbles and, with appropriate opportunism we ran a raffle raising £311 towards a new regatta rowing boat. Prizes were donated by Tayvallich Inn, Tayvallich Shop & Coffee Shop and Jura Stores. Jura Distillery marked the occasion with some bottles of 10 year old JURA malt for everyone to have a dram.

That was Friday. Saturday was the Jura Regatta blessed with pleasant weather. The new pontoons (with funding to develop The Antlers they were another achievement celebrated at the Civic Reception) came into their own. They made landing the boats and getting in and out a LOT easier than before. Everyone was able to see the races from the pontoon and the pier without too much congestion. The Wheeries (family entertainment band) kick-started the party in the evening with a midnight ceilidh performed by Tiree’s Skerryvore. In the best traditions, the sun was coming up over the bay as we began to think of going home..

As well as marking our successes in getting the passenger ferry to Tayvallich launched and raising the funding to develop The Antlers, the Civic Reception on 1st August marks our other major achievement in installing eight new moorings and two pontoons woth the landing bridge. These facilities will offer much more support to visiting yachts and make Craighouse a more attractive anchorage. The landing bridge will make it possible for dinghys and small boats from moored off yachts to be able to land in pretty well all weathers. Before this, they just couldn’t get ashore without favourable conditions.

Our twin community in the new passenger ferry from Craighouse to Tayvallich in Kintyre is mounting a determined effort to buy out its village shop, post office and cafe. The ferry traffic coming into Tayvallich has already brought increased trade to the cafe, as people arrive early for boarding. This might make the business prospects brighter, supporting the community’s efforts to raise over a quarter of a million pounds to secure the shop.

The copyright on the photograph above of Tayvallich is owned by E Gammie and is licensed for reuse under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 license.

The new fast passenger ferry from Tayvallich to Craighouse has been running for around a month and has already tripled the numbers carried. We’ve got funding for the Antlers project so now a tearoom, interpretation and craft centre are on the horizon. So - in the Village Hall at Craighouse on 1st August, we’re holding a civic reception to thank everyone who’s helped us and to give ourselves a pat on the back for all our hard work for several years. Everyone on the island is invited as are all our businesses. And some businesses from Tayvallich - at the other end of our new ferry - are coming over. Guess how they’ll be travelling? Our Argyll MP and MSPs are coming along with Councillors and the Council’s Transport Spokesman. Let’s make it a good one.

A meeting about the awful mess that is the damage caused by the new slipway at Port Askaig to Jura’s ferry link with Islay saw plenty of plain speaking from over sixty islanders aimed at two responsible officers of Argyll and Bute Council - Director of Operational Services, Andy Law and Principal Engineer, Peter Ward. It was a classic confrontation between grounded commons sense and defensive waffle by people who cannot admit they were wrong.

And all the proof of the problem was evident on the day of the meeting - when Jura lost no fewer than eight sailings between Feolin and Port Askaig because bad weather forced the CalMac ferry to stay berthed at the Port Askaig linkspan. With the new slipway unusable by the Jura ferry, it has been having to use the linkspan - but can’t do this when the big CalMac boat is in. Anyway, everyone at the meeting had a laugh when Mr Law tried to explain why no representative from the responsible engineering company, Arch Henderson, was there. He said that they weren’t prepared to come for nothing and he wasn’t prepared to pay them. But he was happy to pay them for the flawed slip that’s the root of the problem. You couldn’t make it up.

Jura Community Council’s Donald Ewan Darroch noted that ‘the Council officials did not admit there is a serious problem which did not exist this time last year, and it is a problem that they have caused’. Chair of the Community Council, Willie MacDonald, said direct to Mr Law, ‘We’re not expecting miracles but we expect something’.

The Jura Development Trust are delighted to announce that they have been awarded a grant of £146,594 from The Big Lottery - Investing in Communities.

The award will provide 50% of capital costs for redeveloping the Antlers building to incorporate a tearoom, craft display and sales area and an Interpretation Display. In addition 75% of core costs over 3 years is included in the award to allow the Trust to deliver the project outcomes.

The proposed work on The Antlers will bring back into use a vital community facility by renovating an existing empty building in the centre of the village to incorporate a Tearoom, craft/gift display and Interpretative display of life on Jura.

The project will provide the community with social and recreational opportunities that are currently lacking and that will be easily accessible to all age groups and levels of mobility.

It will provide employment and enterprise opportunities both in the construction and running stages and provide a retail outlet for local craftspeople.

This is terrific news for the island and we would like to thank the Big Lottery for supporting this project.