Think about it. Where are the economic drivers of Scotland? They’re the great wedge of the Central Belt, the cities of Glasgow, Stirling and Edinburgh with the industrial hinterland of Lanark; and the city hopscotch up the east coast from Perth to Dundee, to Aberdeen to Inverness,
But what about the west coast? And particularly what about the west, north of the Central Belt?
And what about the west coast at a time when a great swathe of economic carrots to support the Independence proposition is weekly being trailed across Scotland – everywhere but the west?
Without serious investment in strategic infrastructural development at national level, the west will progressively become the mailand’s St Kilda – a charming remoteness accessible only by bobcats that can handle the potholes; with a sprinkling of fabulous homes for the City of London’s super-rich, helicoptering in. And with some rusting Gaelic language signs marking once-upon -a-time communities.
The west needs the economic engine of a city – different from but at least the size of Inverness. A city that is a hub of invention, creativity, industry and real charm. A city that is reachable and itself reaches easily outwards, spreading economic development to its hinterland and further west to the islands.
That ‘city’ can only be Oban.
Oban has a rail head – which can deliver direct from Edinburgh; a major ferry port; an airport and – yes, like the rest of the west, it’s not what it once was and can be again, but Oban has a unique unforgettable beauty that, with its strategic position, is its major asset.
Oban passes the ball between players in Glasgow to the south, Perth and Dundee to the east, Fortwilliam and Inverness to the north and, to the west, in the Hebridean islands, inner, outer and western.
But how?
The easy thinking is simply to develop Oban to the east – which could not be more wrong.
That would mean a charmless and physically heartless suburban sprawl, bringing its own social problems and ruining the visual access to this quite stunning place. It would be Glenshellach Mark 2. And heaven preserve us.
Think about Oban.
It’s all about Oban Bay, the great tiers of the town in the sweeping crescent around and above that active waterway, with its entrances to south and north, both of them kissing the east coast of the Isle of Kerrera.
And that’s it.
Kerrera is an irreducible feature of Oban, one that has been sporadically but not strategically considered; and one that remains undeveloped both in itself and in regard to a communal city space.
Now think of two key places – elsewhere:
- Malta, with its Grand Harbour and the city of Valletta, also high above the water – and across the Harbour what they call ‘the three cities’ of Vittoriosa, Senglea and Cospicua. These are old towns now a continuous urban strip, on peninsulas into Grand Harbour, across that water from the long southerly coast of Valletta. Passenger ferries scuttle backwards and forwards across the harbour and you can drive between the two sides.
- Vancouver, with Vancouver Island – ferries, sail boats, businesses, hideaways, two very different but equally busy and thriving places, complementing each other and together creating a city like no other.
Now think Oban and Kerrera. Yes, the scale’s different but the concept is the same. And think of the potential and the attractiveness.
Think about a small city (like Inverness, in truth a large-ish town) developed around the bay, adding to its character, not subtracting from it as a suburban sprawl inland to the east would do.
Think of lights across the bay – from either side – shouting ‘life’; cross-water choices of places to go, places to live, places to work, things to do. Think vitality.
This can be done.
There are genuinely first class creative imaginations within the Council’s planning department. Imagine what they could do – and how much more they would enjoy their jobs – given the chance to turn their capability to a project of this sort?
Access and development
This is where the national government comes in – and must do, for the sake of the developed sustainability of the west.
Build a new road from the A85 at Connell – and as a trunked A85, running with the rail line (and therefore not additionally ‘interrupting’ the land), coming in to the town to the south, at, say, the roundabout with the Fire Station and Lorn and the Isles Hospital – and then running on down Glenshellach to Gallanach with a bridge across to Kerrera.
At that point, the rest would be down to Argyll and Bute Council but the Scottish Government would have laid – and paid for – the foundations of prosperity for the west coast.
There would be room for an industrial and business estate to the south of the town, facilitated by the new road. The heaviest of this traffic would not come through or into the town. Access to the town from the hospital roundabout is already by a wide road.
The road and bridge would offer fast access for construction on Kerrera. A bridge at Gallanach would cross a narrower stretch of the Sound of Kerrera. It would leave open the vital water access from the south into Oban for the CalMac ferry from Coll and Tiree, which often comes into Oban that way – and for the leisure sailing which is vital to the economic and characterful development of the town and its bay.
This would also leave the northern approach to Oban with its breath-catching charm not only retained but enhanced with the counterbalance of the equally tiered, inhabited and lively isle of Kerrera, eastern and western city partners embracing the bay.
Kerrera is a very significant land mass compared to Oban. A bridge at Gallanach would create access to an initial concentration of urban and business development to the north of the island; as well as access to the southern part which might remain more rural for the time being but offering development room for the future.
The development of Oban in this way, as a very specific small ‘city’ in and for the west, would leave everyone with a positively attractive place to live, rather than cramming economic fodder into suburban dumps to the inland east.
This would be a small city whose life would be developed exactly where it has always been – on the water.
Oban FM would be in the full sense, an Independent Local Radio (ILR) station with its mast on Pulpit Hill already more than capable – and community television in and for Oban could set the standard for the genre.
There are two key factors for success.
One would be planning – so that, as soon as the infrastructure was there, a sufficiently substantial development went in to Kerrera immediately, creating a sizeable and sustainable community of residents and businesses. Sporadic small scale development would see the initiative die on its feet.
The second – which would happen first, would be design. Oban is a beautiful town also because the keystones of its architecture were built to last and with a sense of merchant style. Development on Kerrera would be the same ‘shop window’ as the Oban bayfront terracing. Quality of design concept and of construction would be imperative – with an upfront understanding and mindfulness of how people most enjoyably live in and use space.
A top-rank, full-on architectural competition for a phased initiative of this kind would attract worldwide interest – and this too should be something paid for by the Scottish Government and VisitScotland. Why? Because this is for the west and not simply for Argyll.
The Scottish Government is responsible for the economic development of the entire country, not simply those areas already well up and running. And VisitScotland is responsible for developing and marketing the known attractions of the entire country, with the west arguably its potentially richest resource.
Of course a development project of this order would have problems of all sorts to be overcome – but nothing in this is insurmountable. Development of Oban of some kind will come. We can have a mediocre and spiritless one or we can push for something quite splendid – and therefore much more likely to succeed as a economic driver.
This would not only be building for the future of Oban. It would be building for the sustainable future of the west coast and islands.
Interesting.
Any thoughts yet as to the industries and businesses which would be the heart of this new city?
I recall a talented town planning student publishing a dissertation along the lines of your dream only a couple of years ago. I’ll try to dig it out.
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For W.S.: Throwing us a challenge is like throwing a bone to a dog. Thinking as we write…
As a minimum wage economy and not a low wage one, we cannot compete on manufacturing costs. But we need to make things as well as provide services. So we need to think of specialism, high level skills and expertise, quality, smaller scale production and businesses whose work means that they that might as well be located here as anywhere.
There are successful examples of this business philosophy in the area. Owen Sails supplied Shirley Robertson’s Olympic Gold medalling Yngling boat at the Athens Olympics in 2004. PPD Photo Etching in Lochgilphead – a less obvious home for innovatiion than Oban coud be – is one of only two such businesses in the UK and has a stunning client list. It makes specialist kit and accessories for companies of the order of Rolls Royce. North West Marine has gone in for providing remotely operated subsea camera investigation and repair work.
With its internationally known sailing waters, its major annual sailing events out of Oban and close to hand on the west coast – and with its creative people – why can’t we see a high-end cult lime of leisure sailing wet weather and apres-sail fashion gear designed and made in Oban? We can even think of a neat brand name for this level of kit that would support entry to an international market.
And, alongside this, everyone says that with the wet and windy west coast weather, you can forget fashion. Why can’t we see a unique fashion line designed and made in Oban for our climate – practical, efficient, supercool and wantable. Who else does this as a specialist focus? There are plenty of wet and windy east and west coast towns in the UK alone.
There is a business park allied to the fabulous Marine Science Institute (aka SAMS) at Dunstaffnage. The commercial implementation of research coming out of a highly specialist place like this has virtually infinite potential – but we need the infrastructure, the investment and the lifestyle to make it possible for management and actual manufacturing as well as development to happen here.
Another major area for skills, creativity and jobs is the wonderfully set-up-anywhere world of digital systems and software. There is a major market in the advertising and film world for people with serious skills in file compression techniques. Have you ever wondered why film previews released on You Tube are such high quality and so fast to load? This is what the compression-heads make possible and the good ones will always work. Superfast broadband is well on the way to becoming a universal information and entertainments platform. With this as fact and with Scotland keen to get as many fingers as possible into the film industry – Michael Breslin, the ambitious and savvy Principal of Argyll College – which has a campus in Oban – is more than capable of coming up with a local kick-start for expertise in this field that will continue to be needed in ever greater strengths.
This then links with the possibility of Oban becoming a creative industries hub. There are already software and online marketing companies. They need challenge and opportunity to grow and to attract the new competition that will sharpen everyone’s performances, whet appetites and create the necessary critical mass of skills and businesses.
And, writing this throws up the role of an immediate support facility. The Oban we see possible here would be the right place for a very individual digital art and production college – a training, research and development establishment geared to creative industries that could set up and flourish in a mini west coast Vancouver. And that would pull in more young people of working age from elsewhere, with skills potential and bringing more economic development, introducing them to Oban and the west coast. That would mean buying in top cutting edge talent on the teaching and research side – but it is going to take a galvanic to turn around the gentle decline of the west coast s aiming high is necessary. Energetic businesses alongside a targeted first class energetic training and research establishment create a self-sustaining virtuous circle, as, in its field, SAMS is well on the way to demonstrating.
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‘Dear Santa, we know times are hard but for Christmas FA would like a new A83, total upgrade of the A82, a bridge at Gallenach, a new road to the town from the bridge, an architectural competition paid for by the Scottish Govt, a new TV station and of course all half-empty schools everywhere to remain open.
ps FA and Newsie still believe in fairies as well…..
pps Santa, If you can’t manage that wish list an ‘exclusive’ on ‘Member of the Administration on the Council does something Bad!!’ will do…. Newsie xxxxx
Hot debate. What do you think?
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For Simon: Easy to see why the west coast is dying on its feet – severe shortage of ambition and balls.
You are of the ‘managed decline’ brotherhood?
The answer is an unequivocal and unapologetic YES. We do need every one of these things – and more.
It is a massive part of the landmass and the potential of Scotland we’re talking about.
But with the scant sense of what is necessary that you manifest, it is obvious why you would close schools willy nilly. Depopulate the place and who needs roads, who needs business development and who needs jobs?
But we can cry into our pints (imported) down the centuries to come for the land we lost – or threw away.
Hot debate. What do you think?
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The PG thesis WS is thinking of is FUTURE OBAN
Simon, you are a miserable visionless creature who never seems to have anything positive to say. Why bother getting up in the morning if life is so drab?
Hot debate. What do you think?
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Tsk, Tsk, Newsie – “severe shortage of ambition and balls.” You really don’t take criticism very well do you??
Hot debate. What do you think?
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I think perhaps Newsie should have a look at the West Coast of Canada. If you were to take the analogy of Vancouver & Vancouver Island then you’d be looking at developing Colonsay & not Kerrera. Vancouver Island is a couple of hours on the ferry from Vancouver & that’s not taking into account the hour from Downtown to the ferry terminal. I’m being pedantic – the principle you outline stands even if it’s difficult to imagine. It’s North & West Vancouver that are across the bay from Downtown & are served by an excellent Seabus & more congested bridges.
Sorry for keeping my pedantic hat on but you are sticklers for accuracy. It’s not the ferries from Coll & Tiree that come up the Sound of Kerrera from the south but the ferry from Colonsay.
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For Keith Stanger: Accuracy is good – and the reality plays greatly to the advantage of the Oban/Kerrera relationship.
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Great thinking!
Bergen in Norway has a similar system of mainland and island served with a bridge … I was very impressed by the houses built on the island shoreline and beside many of them, a jetty with large trawlers berthed alongside – at the house! Now that is operational need! Presumeably the catch consigned on to a buyer and into an artic lorry and off over the bridge…Imagine.. homes and fishing boats in the inlets off the Sound of Kerrera.
As you point out with superfast broadband all sorts of business is possible. Only limited by imagination indeed.
Then the offshoots of SAMS at Dunstaffnage are already developing oceanic medical improvements. The new science park alongside will provide many more opportunities for great jobs and creative juices to flow.
Lorn and the Isles District General Hospital is a fantastic assset to North Argyll maybe if imaginatively developed it could add some specialisms filling the unused ward(s. Could we bring in patients to Oban for treatments – the A82 and A85 go both ways it is often forgotten!
Then we add the Councils Lorn arc proposals providing imaginitive development opportunities round the MRC deep water port,add the potential for a great windfarm support and supply centre in or around Oban for the Tiree aray, which in itself might attract housing sales at the top end of the market on Kerrera. The Ganavan quality housing development has proven the success of offering fine houses in a great location.
Oban International Airport properly marketed to bring in 4* plus tourism – to Iona and Mull and Oban – look what a dream of an airport did for religious tourism at Knock in Ireland!! Iona is afterall the home of Scottish christianity and an idyllic destination.
The Oban airport is as yet a sleeping giant but with proper links marketed in the right areas could become the hub we imagined all those years ago, serving all of the Argyll isles and beyond to the cities of Scotland.
A great deal of food for thought from For Argyll- well done!
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Why is Robert Wakeham not proposing another tunnel ‘tween Oban and Kerrera or wherever….?
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For Simon: Perhaps, at this very moment, Robert Wakeham is designing an escape tunnel to get any salvageable human beings out of Kilmory? That will be your ‘wherever’ option.
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Funny tunnels should be mentioned – I hear Angus Brendan MP came back from the Faroes with a suggestion of an equivelant one from Oban to Mull so I guess Kerrera would be a breeze….
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Simon: because he hasn’t seen this thread until today; I expect you’re being facetious but you might be aware of the ongoing debate in the Shetlands over the provision of a bridge or tunnel link to Bressay, which relates to Lerwick almost exactly as Kerrera relates to Oban, but already has a vehicle ferry to downtown Lerwick and has historically been more developed than Kerrera. The trouble is, the pressure on extensive developments on Kerrera would undoubtedly change its character, and if not very carefully handled and kept within sensible bounds could get very messy.
My first priority for Oban would be the long-discussed north-south relief road, because the town’s road network is seriously inadequate as it is. Simon, for you further benefit, and education, I recommend a study tour of the Norway coast; the most ambitious big town expansion via bridge, tunnel and ferry links that I know of is Alesund, with the main town on a very rocky peninsula, the airport on one island, suburbs on five islands, and so on. Much further north the Lofoten islands communities have been tied together with tunnels and bridges that show just how much the sensible investment of the country’s oil income is achieving. Might even serve to open your eyes, Simon.
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On a point of accuracy, the three towns in Malta referred to in the article do not include one called Vittoriosa. Your information is several decades out of date. It reverted to its old Maltese name of Birgu at independence as far as I recall.
As to getting the SNP government to part with all that cash for an west coast project, well that is a joke. They have no need to buy votes here, enough mugs do it for nothing.
If nothing else newsie it is good for a laugh. This will,if it survives, be followed by screeds of SNP propaganda. I look forward to reading it – I like comics.
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For JimB: Thank you for the information – which is useful even though it has no impact of any kind on the idea.
And, so far, the only claque that has popped over the parapet has been the knocking convoy.
No wonder Argyll just limps along when it could sprint with the best if it lifted its gaze.
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It is just a few days before christmas I think one fairy story is enough for everybody to cope with at this time of year.Sadly I expect more jobs to go next year as the council are looking for more voluntary redundancies.This will also effect the level of service across a wide range of departments.Any spare money we have should be used to build low rent homes in Oban.The fantasy stuff can wait till we sort out the basics.
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Newsie, Newsie, Newsie – “you would close schools willy nilly”.
Tsk, tsk, tsk. You’re losing it again Newsie ….
I’m on record on here as saying that Mike Russell should not have authorised the closing of Robslee and that to close Muirfield using the same flawed SNP legislation would be quite wrong.
An apology is in order methinks….
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Argyll and Bute Council trying its damndest to close 26 schools – in a place of the nature and topography of Argyll – qualifies as ‘willy milly’ in anybody’s book, Simon – making non distinction between schools like St Kieran’s and Ardchonnel that were already closed and schools like Rosneath and Kilcreggan, for example, that were healthy by any standards.
Your ‘support’ for Robslee And Muirfield would be heartwarming – if it had existed to the point you claim. In fact, in the most recent and serious situation at Muirfield, – you were surprisingly supportive of the Education Secretary in a situation of some dubiety.
You also seem to have a problem with recognising and speaking against unprofessional and downright dishonest conduct close to home.
There hasn’t been a supportive squeak out of you over Argyll and Bute Council’s proven manipulation of evidence to further their case for general and specific school closures.
Take the manipulation of capacity ratings – where North Bute school would have had to stack kids vertically in crates like old breaktime milk bottles to meet the quoted figure.
Take the attempt to close Barcaldine and Minard schools – both, on manifest evidence, recognised as providing an excellent education.
Take the frankly fraudulent manipulation of the distances small children, in many cases, would have had to travel to their proposed new school, sometimes on single track roads unsafe in winter.
Take the disguised fall in teacher/pupil ratios resulting from the proposed management of mergers.
Take the ‘plunging birth rate’ stats advanced to support the general closure programme – figures proven to relate to a pattern long over; proven too, in some instances, simply to have been made up; and shown to have selectively quoted from a response to the Education Director from the General Register Office for Scotland (GROS) – managing to reverse the critical point they were making.
And we could – on evidence, offer very many more examples, right here at home.
Since you had nothing supportive to say on issues as serious as this – here in Argyll – your ‘support’ for Robslee and Muirfield looks like being politically motivated.
On the other hand, in every case we supported – in Argyll, in Shetland, in Caithness, in East Renfrew, in Angus and retrospectively, in Ayrshire with Crossroads school – we offered support on the basis of good evidence running, by the governing legislation, counter to any closure proposal and counter to any permitted closure. In doing so, we acted without fear or favour, exposing unacceptable conduct where we found it – in the law, in senior Scottish civil servants, in COSLA, in the Education Secretary and in local authorities.
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C’mon newsie – get a grip! “you were surprisingly supportive of the Education Secretary in a situation of some dubiety.” – that’s becuase I try to judge each situation on its merits and quite frankly your paranoid convulted rant aobut supposed SNP manipulation in Angus was about as believable as… well a bridge over to Kerra…..
Have a nice day
ps I take it you’re not going to apologise then??
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It’s an interesting idea, but isn’t there a case for completing Oban’s first and most famous folly before starting another one?
If you threw in a tram from the airport to the rail station you could go for the hat-trick!
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McCaig was probably Argyll’s last visionary. I think it must be the hills and mist that limit our sightlines. No harm in dreaming though, particularly at Christmas. Who knows what might be possible in a future Brave New Scotland?
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Thinking like this is very valuable. In the normal organic growth of the town it will probably be some time before the Kerrera option would be needed.
However, who would have thought even 20 years ago that Inverness would show the phenomenal growth it has over that time? Much of this growth was down to attracting what became a phenomenally successful biomedical company: Inverness Medical, which is now the largest private sector employer in the Highlands.
The company’s growth – from basically nothing to over a thousand jobs – was possible because Inverness itself was able to grow and accommodate the rapidly expanding workforce. This “keystone” company triggered major investment in biomedicine in the Inverness area and this has in turn created even more jobs.
Inverness is the place for biomedicine in the Highlands but Oban is the obvious place for marine science related industries. SAMS has expanded rapidly over the past twenty years I have been here, driven largely by its involvement with UHI. In these times of straightened public purses further expansion on the academic side will be incremental and probably more modest (though note the expansion of UHI funding announced by the SG just today). However, the big opportunity is in attracting commercial ventures to the area (or spinning out new ones from the academic base – though this is more difficult than folks realise). The new science park gives the space for these ventures but where will the new folk attracted in live?
Imagine that one of these companies is successful and creates 200 new jobs (less than 20% of Inverness Medical). These jobs have a multiplying effect in support and service industries (as well as public sector employees such as teachers) so let’s say that over a five year period we need an additional 300 houses near Oban. That is the time where it is necessary to have plans of vision to fall back on to avoid hastily planned and built schemes that provide housing – sure – but fail to deliver on the promise of the area.
So let’s not knock dreams. Unlike fantasies, dreams can come true and faster than you might think.
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Excellent idea.
Argyll and Bute needs to focus on two strands of pubic policy: sustainable enterprise and radical compassion.
The first requires all development to promote economic activity and under 50 population expansion.
The second involves greater third and voluntary sector social support.
We can’t wait for central government to supply the funds so we plan a campaign to do it ourselves. Many intiatives can be cost neutral to the council but will secure major economic and social benefits.
Others will require a much more enlightened use of public assets such as securitising council property to fund new roads and tunnels. As well as opening up the area to new development it also provides jobs for young healthy folk.
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Care to check your spelling, Graeme?
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