For Argyll

Ferry operator, Caledonian MacBrayne (CalMac), has stepped into the frame to ease the plight of islanders on Jura facing a loss of air ambulance support on Monday and Friday nights for the next ten years. The company has offered to divert its regular ferry service from Port Askaig to Port Ellen on Monday and Friday nights, leaving its linkspan free to be used by the small Jura ferry for ambulance access in night-time emergencies.

The situation is a consequence of the embarrassing debacle where the new slipway at Port Askaig on Islay has proved - as islanders had long warned unheeded - not fit for purpose. Unable to use the new slip with any guarantee of safety to passengers, vehicles or crew, the small Jura ferry from Port Askaig on the short passage across the Sound of Islay to Feolin has had to use the linkspan built for the large CalMac Ferry running from Kennacraig and Oban. This ferry lies alongside at Port Askaig all night on Mondays and Fridays, leaving the Jura fery with nowhere to go.

The Air Ambulance Service’s helicopter, which can lift emergencies from Jura directly in daylight, has to land at Islay airport at night. Emergency cases are then brought to it by road via the ferry from Feolin to Port Askaig. Obviously when the big CalMac ferry overnights at Port Askaig, the small ferry can’t use the Linkspan, leaving Jura with no night-time access. Full details are in news items under Community News, published earlier in May.

Willie MacDonald, Chair of the Jura Community Council, said: ‘CalMac is doing this with our backing but it is not a long-term solution’. He pointed out that the easement of the situation does create the opportunity for the Council to work on the unusable slipway at Port Askaig. The Council’s position is that it would not be possible to address the problems with the Port Askaig slip until the Jura ferry is due for a refit in ten year’s time.