Welcome to the Tiree Community Council website
What do we do?
As a Community Council we are the first, or the grass-roots, tier of statutory representation in Scotland.
We bridge the gap between local authorities and communities, thereby ensuring that public authorities are aware of the opinions, and needs, of the Tiree community.
How do we do it?
We articulate the views and concerns of Tiree’s residents on a wide range of issues of public concern, and making representations to Argyll and Bute Council, Scottish Government and other public sector bodies within or affecting Tiree Community Council’s sphere of interest.
How do we gather the Community’s views?
Public meetings of Tiree Community Council are held regularly throughout the year, alternately in person and by Zoom. Our AGM will be held in person. You can find the digital joining details of our meetings under the ‘Meetings’ section of our website, along with the draft minutes of the previous meeting.
All members of the public are welcome.
Public meetings, and their agenda, are advertised a week in advance.
We are always happy to receive correspondence by e-mail with questions or issues to be raised.
Our website has a comments facility which requires you to register a named account to post.
We also operate a Facebook Page where routine issues are often flagged and comments can also be made there with a Facebook account.
Our public meetings are streamed on our Facebook page.
Both of these forms of comment are governed by a Moderation policy.
For those not wishing to use those mechanisms to comment on a page or a Facebook post, the option is always available to comment separately to us directly by email.
Planning Applications:
If you are interested in seeing what planning applications are currently being considered for Tiree, you can find the weekly lists of applications published here: https://www.argyll-bute.gov.uk/planning-and-environment/weekly-list-valid-planning-applications
You can search these PDF documents (Keyboard shortcut Ctrl-F) for “Tiree” to find any application within our area.
Our Facebook Page feed:
Joint Press Release![]()
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Coll Community Council![]()
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Tiree Community Council ![]()
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23rd April, 2026 – for immediate release![]()
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Tiree and Coll have had enough of CalMac’s makeshift ferry service![]()
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Islanders on Coll and Tiree are calling for the immediate return of their route vessel, MV Clansman, in the wake of months of a fragmented and unreliable ferry service.![]()
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So far in April, the current route vessel, MV Isle of Mull, has racked up a score of 22/23 days when the one sailing-per-day service has been on weather alert, cancelled or disrupted in some way. In March, only 57% of scheduled services were delivered according to CalMac’s own statistics, the poorest weather-impacted performance in the entire network.![]()
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In 2023 the Clansman was away from the route for 5 months; in 2025 it was 3 months; 2026 is approaching 3 months and counting (1). Her replacement vessels, first MV Lord of the Isles and now MV Isle of Mull, whilst appreciated for having been removed from their normal ferry routes, have proved themselves totally unsuited to the waters around Tiree and Coll and their exposed island berths.![]()
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Confidence has plummeted and the mood on both islands has now changed, from one of annual forbearance with CalMac’s problems, to anger about how the limited service is being run as well as the unsuitable ships.![]()
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The cancellation of the Tuesday service (21.4.26), on the grounds of “longer passage times affecting crew hours of rest” (2), was seen as entirely avoidable in view of the fact that it is CalMac who allocate the replacement boat and set the amended timetable for the route. ![]()
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On Wednesday (22.4.26), in the course of trying to pack two days’ traffic onto one sailing, a pre-booked lorry with essential food supplies bound for Tiree was gazumped and left behind in Oban by CalMac’s prioritisation of other traffic. It seems that the Traffic Matrix, agreed between CalMac and both the Tiree and Coll communities, and which gives clear priority after disruptions to the carriage of essentials such as food, feedstuffs, medical supplies, was not adhered to.![]()
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On Friday (24.4.26) if things go to plan, an essential calor gas delivery of Coll’s entire annual order will finally arrive on the island after a three month’s wait.![]()
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According to Tiree Community Council’s secretary, Dr John Holliday, “ Tiree Community Council has had an unprecedented number of complaints about the service in the past week. Our island businesses are suffering. Seriously. As one islander put it to us: 'Can't get away, can't get back! Tiree is turning into an awful place to live!!' ”![]()
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From the Coll point of view, Kirsty MacFarlane of Coll Community Council said, “Contrary to what politicians might think, there’s a limit to how long communities like ours can be expected to join in a sort of Spirit of the Blitz, all pulling together and making do with whatever ferry service is on offer. We are now heartily sick of the months of chaos that we experience every year which is caused by the extended removal of the Clansman and her replacement by boats that are not suitable. Enough is enough.”![]()
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Both island community councils have now sent an Open Letter to CalMac Chief Executive, Duncan Mackison, demanding the immediate return of the MV Clansman to the Tiree/Coll route.![]()
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Ends.
The community council has had a huge postbag over the last fortnight about the (lack of) ferries. John MacCaskill, chair of the Tiree Transport Forum, has given an interview to the BBC on the matter and corresponded with CalMac several times a week. Together with Coll Community Council, we have distributed a press release on the unprecedented situation.
For those travelling to hospital on the ferry for an urgent appointment, or coming back from hospital, this emergency medical protocol from CalMac will be relevant:![]()
Urgent medical appointments | Caledonian MacBrayne
www.calmac.co.uk
Find out more about Caledonian MacBrayne's support for customers with urgent medical appointments.
MINUTES![]()
APRIL PUBLIC MEETING OF TIREE COMMUNITY COUNCIL (TCC)![]()
7 pm 15 April 2026![]()
Online and streamed on the Tiree Community Council Facebook page![]()
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1. Present: Gerard McGoogan (chair), Dr John Holliday, John MacCaskill and Frances Khetrat. There were no members of the public on the Zoom call, but 690 people had viewed the meeting on Facebook (FB) by the following morning.![]()
2. Apologies: Cllr Willie Hume and Tim Arkless![]()
3. Current election period: the chair reminded the meeting that TCC had to remain non-party-political.![]()
4. Declarations of interest: GMG and JH were Directors of Solar, which used the Scarinish phone box. JH is a Director of the Hynish Trust.![]()
5. Minutes of last meeting: these were accepted as a true record. Proposed JMC, seconded GMG.![]()
6. Matters arising (not covered later):![]()
• Bike stands and community garden: GMG will write a letter about these matters this week after the holiday period![]()
• Increase in spending on community councils: we still have not heard how this will be divided up. We want it to be divided equally between the 56 community councils in Argyll and Bute because our fixed costs are all the same![]()
• Heating oil and LPG: GMG has looked into this. GMG has looked into this. About 30% of Tree households use heating oil. None use LPG, although this may be an underestimate as the households using LPG for heating are often in caravans which may not have been trecorded in the Census. The Scottish Emergency Heating Oil Scheme (which does include LPG) was launched on 1 April under Advice Direct Scotland. This amounts to £300 now and up to £300 every three months. A team from Argyll and Bute Council (ABC) were due to come over with information about grants for insulation but it was cancelled due to ferries. The visit will be rescheduled.![]()
• JH is still working on a campaign about the difficulties getting patient travel tickets through the Health Board. He will wait until after the Scottish Parliamentary election, so that he can involve the new MSP![]()
7. Correspondence: ![]()
• We had received correspondence about the difficulty in arranging Openreach home visits with the ferry disruption meaning that engineers have had to leave the island at short notice![]()
• Belinda Ruthven, Resilience Officer for Argyll and Bute Council, is organising a meeting for island key workers on Wednesday 29 April![]()
• A patient discharged from hospital was unable to get a booking in Oban on a re-scheduled ferry sailing. We raised this with Stephen Wood, the CalMac Area Manager, who told us about the CalMac medical priority protocol. The details of this can be found at ![]()
www.calmac.co.uk/en-gb/travel/urgent-medical-appointments/#/howitworks![]()
We had been unaware of this. We have passed the link on to the surgery and will put the link on the TCC FB page![]()
• Police Scotland report for March: 6 calls and 2 crimes![]()
• We received a letter from Screen Argyll about a new youth programme called PlanetYouth. We have written to support this, and will try to attend its first meeting![]()
8. Meeting reports: this month has been quieter. GMG and JH went to the Climate Action Group meeting. GMG had met the Deputy First Minister about communications resilience.![]()
9. Transport update (JMC):![]()
• There has been an unprecedented level of correspondence with travelling members of the public and business owners about the inadequacy of the current ferry service. We are grateful for this correspondence, as it is a good way to understand what is happening in the community. We are in almost daily communication with CalMac. The Transport Forum had a useful meeting with Stephen Wood, Area Manager. The Forum has decided to work constructively within the system, rather than embarking on media campaigns. There has been some criticism of this low-key approach![]()
• The timetable next winter is being discussed at the moment. Coll CC have proposed a slightly earlier Monday sailing for next winter. The Tiree hauliers seem to be happy with this. The number of missed ferries in winter has been a problem. CalMac are currently looking into the possibility of offering a fortnightly ‘freight run’ Oban-Tiree-Oban’ which would be separate from the published Winter Timetable should it be deemed a viable proposal![]()
• We have had the Isle of Mull on the run for longer than expected. Because this vessel has a closed car deck, there are difficulties carrying fuel on it. CalMac have been in touch to see if this was causing a problem on Tiree![]()
• We hope to get the Clansman and the usual deck-space pilot back this Saturday![]()
• The Scottish Government has announced a £10 million Business Resilience Fund to compensate for the ferry disruptions. GMG will correspond with Mull, Iona and Iona bodies about a joint representation to the Scottish Government on how this might work![]()
• CalMac local staff have had a difficult period, and we are very grateful for their professionalism![]()
• JMC and GMG me the Highlands and Islands Airports CEO and Chair. They are looking at opening up some additional car parking space. The airport buildings will get painted this summer. We thanked the local HIAL and Loganair staff for their excellent service![]()
• Luke Farajallah, the CEO of Loganair, is visiting Tiree on 30 April![]()
• Stephen Wood from CalMac is meeting the Transport Forum in person on 29 April. This clashes with the Resilience meeting (see above) so JMC will change this to the evening. SW will make a presentation on the carriage of electric vehicles![]()
• TCC will start lobbying for a new Tiree-Coll ferry after the elections. This process takes many years but it needs to start soon![]()
10. Tiree library re-instatement: this will re-open. The job has been advertised, although it is only 8 hours a week. There is some building work needed at the school.![]()
11. Tiree dental service: we had a letter from a patient who had been waiting years for an appointment at the Tiree surgery. We asked for other peoples’ experience on our FB page, and got a huge response, with some terrible stories. One person said they had been waiting five years for an appointment. Many children have never had their check-ups. The service used to be one week a month, but was cut back to two between-plane days every two weeks. The Oban plane only comes 55% of the time. We wrote to Gill Rees, the Assistant Chief Dental Officer for NHS Highland, asking for a meeting. She is making enquiries and will get back to us.![]()
12. Consultation on Local Development Plan 3: this considers local land use. We do not have the resources to respond to this fully and properly, and decided not to put in a response.![]()
13. Mortuary: there has been representation that the Mortuary on the airfield is not fit for purpose. We have tackled this issue before without success. It was not clear who owned the building or who had responsibility for it. JH will make some enquiries. ![]()
14. Broadband and R100: Openreach were on the island last week. Their engineers will be on the island until June, but ferry problems have made their operations difficult. There had been a public meeting, which had been well attended. Tiree Broadband closes on 1 June. The recent break in the subsea cable in Orkney shows that there are still problems getting timely information out to islanders. If or when this happens on Tiree again, we will not have Tiree Broadband to rescue 150 customers. ![]()
15. Telephone boxes: the boxes at Caolas, Scarinish, Mannal, Balephuil, Heylipol, Middleton, Balevullin and Cornaigmore are all now taken, leaving only Kenovay and Crossapol to remove. GMG will contact SSEN abut disconnecting them. ![]()
16. Recent planning applications: external signs around the lighthouse shore station. We had no objections.![]()
17. AOCB: we still have the Keder house from the community garden. GMG will enquire about putting it to use.![]()
18. Date and format of next meeting: this will be in person on Wednesday 20 May. JH will contact Matthew Shaw from Police Scotland, who wished to attend.![]()
19. [Note after the meeting: we did not deal with community transport, as we had intended. We will do this at the next meeting.]![]()
The meeting ended at 8.20pm.![]()
Dr John Holliday 16 April 2026
Urgent medical appointments | Caledonian MacBrayne
www.calmac.co.uk
Find out more about Caledonian MacBrayne's support for customers with urgent medical appointments.
Community Council meeting tonight at 7.![]()
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This is the Zoom link:![]()
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Zoom link:![]()
us06web.zoom.us/j/88972623657?pwd=tIInHSAxYzed5dZbyLEiQOKAVWIhIR.1![]()
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Meeting ID: 889 7262 3657![]()
Passcode: jrHrb1![]()
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It will also be streamed on this Facebook page.
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