Notice is hereby given that Mallaig Harbour Authority intends to apply to Scottish Ministers for consent to construct a splay berth quay between the Ice Quay and the Outer Breakwater Quay and create additional laydown space in the Outer Harbour area.
Mallaig Harbour Authority will be holding a pre-application consultation event online via the video conferencing application ‘Zoom’. The event will be taking place on Thursday 5th November 2020, starting at 7pm. The event will provide an opportunity for stakeholders to consider and comment upon the prospective application, and is open to anyone with an interest in the development. To participate in the meeting, visit https://zoom.us, select Join a meeting and use the meeting code 958 4810 9482. If you wish to be emailed these event details, please contact:consultation@affriclimited.co.uk
If you wish to make representations on the proposed development, please contact: Fiona Henderson, Affric Limited, Lochview Office, Loch Duntelchaig, Farr, IV2 6AW, consultation@affriclimited.co.uk by the 20th of November 2020.
Please note, representations made to Mallaig Harbour Authority or Affric Limited are not representations to the Scottish Ministers. Once the Marine Licence Application has been submitted there will be an opportunity for representations to be made to the Scottish Ministers on the application.
September seems to have passed quickly – which is always a good sign! The Marina has continued to be busy throughout the month, although unfortunately we didn’t have enough space for the ‘Ngoni’ – which some of you might have seen passing into Loch Nevis on the 21st and 22nd September. For those of you who didn’t, ‘Ngoni’ is one of the largest sailing yachts in the world, at 190 feet (58 metres), with a 71metre high mast – so just a bit big for our wee pontoons! She was quite a sight though, and did send in a tender to offload some passengers in Mallaig.
The pandemic has meant that we haven’t been able to welcome back the ‘Eda Frandsen’ this summer, and she has now been sold by James and Chloe to new owners, Mungo and Stella. Mungo is originally from Ballachulish and Stella grew up on the Helford river. We look forward to welcoming them next year, when hopefully things will be a bit more ‘normal’!
The month began with the arrival of the ‘Arwen’, the newest addition to the Western Isles fleet. ‘Arwen’ is an ex-Mersey class lifeboat, which has been re-painted and re-fitted by A.Noble and Sons, and will be used primarily for the transport of High School pupils to and from the Small Isles.
We then had the Taumar, a newly-built Norwegian well boat operating out of the Harbour for a fortnight, harvesting fish from Grieg Seafood sites on Skye.
On Saturday 26th September, we bade farewell to the ‘Aqua Senior’, which has been a regular fixture in the Harbour over the past few years, loading fish feed for EWOS / Cargill to be taken to sites around the West Coast. Ewos sent the ‘Ulla’ to do one loading in the following week. The ‘Ulla’ is bigger than the Aqua Senior, and loads on the opposite side, so it took a bit of juggling, but we managed!
We had another ‘virtual’ Board Meeting on 11th September, at which we approved the Annual Report and Accounts for the y/e 31st March 2020. As usual, the Annual Report highlighted some of the activity on the Harbour, and I have included some excerpts from it below.
Fish Landings/Dues
Landing volumes and monetary values for the current year, the two previous years plus two other random years (for comparative purposes) are listed:
Volume in tonnes
Year ended 31st March
Herring
Sprats/ Mackerel
Whitefish
Shellfish
Total Value
1978
9,483
10,425
3,712
887
£7,640,036
1984
405
1,582
5,373
1,055
£5,195,726
2018
410
1375
566
1184
£7,642,865
2019
0
0
397
752
£4,746,544
2020
0
121
292
683
£4,480,546
Mallaig Harbour Ice:
In our first year of operation, we have sold 1,017 tonnes of ice, and the chart below shows the distribution of this by month. During August, September and October we supplied ice to MOWI, while they were awaiting their own new ice plant being commissioned.
Fish Feed
During the year ending March 2020, 45,043 tonnes of fish feed was shipped through Mallaig a 9% increase on the previous year.
CalMac/Tourism
The volume of cars and passengers conveyed on the CalMac ferries based at Mallaig during the year – MV “Loch Bhrusda”; MV “Loch Fyne”; MV “Lochnevis”; and MV “Lord of The Isles” – indicates an upturn when compared to the previous year, and more significantly, given the disruption in the y/end March 2019, also an upturn on figures for 2018. Commercial vehicles are down on all three routes, while passengers were up 9.6%, cars up 15.4% and coaches up 4%.
Year end
31 March 2020
31st March 2019
31st March 2018
Passengers
365,164
332,944
343,847
Cars
89,069
77,181
82,230
Coaches
2,464
2,367
2,375
Commercials
662
825
851
It is worth noting the increases on the Mallaig-Lochboisdale route in particular, where both passenger and car numbers were up over 38% on the previous year. This service is obviously becoming more established and well-used, but again suffers from the challenges facing CalMac with regard to their fleet, and the need for the Lord of The Isles to be redeployed to cover when other vessels on different routes are not operational for various reasons.
Previous years have noted the disruption to the services from Mallaig, and 2019 was no exception, with 54 days of tidal restrictions leading to over 200 scheduled cancelations, and 177 cancelled sailings for April – September 2019, with a further 84 in October. The unreliability of the timetable makes it less attractive for commercial vehicles, and for much of the summer, the Mallaig-Armadale route operates at capacity, making further growth without a dedicated vessel extremely challenging.
March 2020 saw the introduction of a three-year pilot of additional sailings between Mallaig and Armadale, utilising the ‘Loch Bhrusda’. These were timetabled from the 6th March until the Summer timetable was due to start on 27th March, and were initially well utilised. Unfortunately, restrictions on travel imposed with ‘lockdown’ associated with the Coronavirus mean that the first year of this trial will not be representative.
Developments
West Bay Road Access: After procurement, the contract for the West Bay Road Access was awarded to Fion Construction, and work started on 22nd August, continuing until the end October.
Energy Efficiency: Resource Efficient Scotland undertook an energy survey of the Harbour, and produced a report highlighting potential energy saving measures that could be implemented, some of which would attract an interest free loan. Quotes are being sourced for LED lighting throughout the Harbour, and consideration is being given to other energy saving measures to be incorporated into any future developments.
Renunciation of Denholms Office and Ice Factory: In December the renunciation of the leases for the empty office upstairs in the Harbour Buildings and the old Ice Factory was completed. Plans have been drawn up to convert the office into three smaller offices, and provide welfare facilities for those using the building. The old Ice Factory provides an opportunity to create more industrial space quayside, and to potentially provide new workspace for Harbour Authority staff, but these options need to be investigated further.
Re-facing of the ‘Splay Berth’
Work started to remove all the metal rubbing strips from the piling on the ‘Splay Berth’ (which is mainly used by the Loch Nevis), to re-galvanise and replace these. Whilst most of the work was undertaken prior to the financial year end, and the berth has been left safe to use, Coronavirus restrictions meant that this work is not complete, and will be a priority when restrictions are lifted.
Future Developments
I mentioned last month the proposals to develop more space in the Outer Harbour, which will be discussed at a public meeting on 5th November. I have included a drawing of the proposed development, which is effectively designed to fill in the ‘corner’ in the outer breakwater.
The public meeting will provide an opportunity for stakeholders to consider and comment upon the prospective application. Full details on how to join the event will be displayed at https://www.mallaig-harbour.com/news/ , 10 days prior to the event. If you wish to be emailed event details, please contact: consultation@affriclimited.co.uk. If, having seen the proposals, you wish to make representations on the proposed development, please contact: Fiona Henderson, Affric Limited, Lochview Office, Loch Duntelchaig, Farr, IV2 6AW, consultation@affriclimited.co.uk by the 12th of November 2020.
August has seemed a much busier month now that lockdown has eased a bit, with more activity around the Harbour, and the Marina welcoming a number of visiting yachts throughout the month. We’re still not able to welcome as many yachts as we would in a normal year, but it’s been nice to see the masts bobbing about in the Harbour again. All our staff are now back at work, and we were able to help Simon celebrate his big birthday on 14th August, by having a ‘socially distanced’ slice of cake with him!
We’ve also been busy with celebrities passing through – Romesh Ranganathan took the ferry from Mallaig to Armadale, during filming for ‘The Misadventures of Romesh Ranganathan’, to be broadcast around Christmas. It then felt like the whole village came to a standstill on Wednesday 26th August, as we welcomed two teams of celebrities who were rowing the length of Britain for a new ITV series ‘Don’t Rock the Boat’. The two rowing boats arrived on the pontoons late on Tuesday evening, after a few changes to the schedule because of the weather. The picnic area at the top of Cameron Avenue was taken over by the film crew, and those celebrities who weren’t rowing, while another crew filmed those celebrities who were in the boats from the pontoon. Audrey and I presented those on the pontoons with a miniature each of ‘Mallaig Harbour Water’ as a souvenir, and although the production crew weren’t very sure about the rowers setting off with whisky in their dry bags – the rowers themselves were determined it was coming with them on the boats! I’m sure that there will be better photographs elsewhere this month, but I have included some of mine. We were asked not to give away who was on which team, but, in no particular order, those who left rowing from Mallaig were, James Cracknell, Denise Lewis, Victoria Pendleton, Kimberly Wyatt, Fleur East, Jodie Kidd, Adam Thomas and Jack Fincham. For both days of filming, the weather was beautiful, so hopefully it will showcase the area at its best!
As well as celebrities, there has been a lot of wildlife around this month, so much so that I could watch the dolphins playing in the Harbour from the office window at lunchtime on 25th August!
One of the advantages of lockdown has been that many meetings and training events, which would normally be too far to travel to, have been held online. I was therefore able to attend the British Ports Association (BPA) AGM ‘virtually’ this month, and undertake some Health and Safety training organised by the BPA as well. Throughout lockdown the BPA have provided support and guidance, and have lobbied the Government on behalf of Ports, so it was great to have the opportunity to attend the AGM.
We were also finally able to hold interviews and appoint new Board Members. We’re very grateful to Allan Henderson and Johnny MacMillan, who should have finished their term in March, but agreed to stay on until we were able to recruit new Board Members. Both Allan and Johnny have served three terms on the Board since it was reconstituted in 2012, although both have longer associations than that with the Harbour. During their time as Board Members they have made significant contributions to the operations and the development plans for the Harbour, and both will be missed. We’re delighted to have appointed two ladies to replace them, Niki Robertson, who is based in Mallaig, and Shona MacLeay, who is based in Fort William but has worked on a range of Harbour Projects throughout the Highlands and Islands. This means that we now have a perfectly gender balanced Board, with four males and four females (excluding me!).
Our next Board meeting is Friday 11th September, and we had hoped that we would be able to have an open AGM and invite members of the public to learn more about our development plans. However, restrictions still in force mean that this will not be possible – we’ll try again in mid -November. In the meantime, some of you may have seen in the Oban Times on Thursday 27th August, an advert for a public meeting to be held via ‘Zoom’ on Thursday 5th November 2020, starting at 7pm. Mallaig Harbour Authority intends to apply to Scottish Ministers for consent to construct extensions to the Ice Quay and Outer Breakwater Quay. This is effectively to provide more quay space in the area of the Outer Breakwater which is rock armour at the moment. This development was included in the Masterplan, but as a later phase. We are awaiting detailed drawings from our Engineer, and as soon as we have these, we will share them on the website and on Facebook.
The public meeting will provide an opportunity for stakeholders to consider and comment upon the prospective application. Full details on how to join the event will be displayed at https://www.mallaig-harbour.com/news/ , 10 days prior to the event. If you wish to be emailed event details, please contact: consultation@affriclimited.co.uk. If, having seen the proposals, you wish to make representations on the proposed development, please contact: Fiona Henderson, Affric Limited, Lochview Office, Loch Duntelchaig, Farr, IV2 6AW, consultation@affriclimited.co.uk by the 12th of November 2020.
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