Community Council Meeting

There are 366 potholes between the crossroads in the centre of Kilchoan and the boundary of the West Ardnamurchan Community Council's area at Laga burn - that's one for every day of the year plus an extra one for Christmas.

This shocking statistic formed an introduction to the main discussion at Monday evening's Community Council meeting. Highland Council Technical Services have been made aware of the problem but they argue that they have had very few complaints. WACC is therefore urging everyone who has encountered one of these potholes to write to Tech Services. Letters, stating the location of the problems (take your pick of 366), should be sent to Highland Council Technical Services, Carr's Corner Depot, Lochybridge, Fort William PH33 6XY, tel 01397 709 000, or email tecs@highland.gov.uk. If your car has been damaged in the encounter, you can make a claim against the Council: someone recently did this and was repaid in full for the cost of the repair.

The Community Council was quick to point out that WACC does not blame our local road man, who is constrained by the amount of tarmac, or lack of it, that he has been given to carry out repairs. WACC is also aware that some repairs have recently started from the far end of the road, so they'll take a long time to reach Kilchoan. But, as can be seen from the patching that has taken place at this spot, repairs are becoming layered one on top of another.

Some sections of our roads, particularly down to Kilmory and from the cairn to Caim, are so appalling that Highland Council have given them 'Priority 1' for renovation, which means that they'll be done properly some time in the - hopefully - not too distant future.

On a happier note, Kilchoan Playpark has nearly raised the money it needs to attract its full grant from LEADER, helped by over £2,000 from the recent Stock Judging event.

The Chairman updated the meeting on the situation with our District Nurses. There's a summary of the position over two weeks ago here, but little has changed. We now await the result of a meeting on June 15th between NHS Highland and the Scottish Ambulance Service in which they hope to thrash out a proposal which they can bring to a meeting with the West Ardnamurchan community's representatives. WACC has made it very clear that it will not wait for this meeting beyond the end of June - the process has already taken FAR too long.