MINUTES FEBRUARY PUBLIC MEETING

TIREE COMMUNITY COUNCIL (TCC)

7 pm Wednesday 18 February 2026

By Zoom

1. Present: Gerard McGoogan (chair), Dr John Holliday, John MacCaskill and Tim Arkless. Dr Callum George, a candidate for the Scottish national election, was present as an observer.
2. Date of meeting: this meeting had been re-scheduled from the week before due to our being inquorate.
3. Apologies: Cllr Willie Hume.
4. Declarations of interest: JH and GMG declared an interest as directors of Solar, which uses the Scarinish phone box as a community food cupboard.

5. Minutes of last meeting: we agreed to delete from item 9, the phrase ‘Our new ferry is not due until 2045.’ The minutes were proposed JMCA, seconded GMG.
6. Matters arising:

• GMG had contacted HIE to find out which businesses had been successful in round 2 of the Business Resilience Plan applications. This information will be issued in due course
• JH had written to the owner of the Scarinish and Lodge Hotels. He replied that he had been trying to get a workparty to the island in January but had been unsuccessful due to ferry cancellations. It was pointed out that he had arrived on the island on the day of the meeting

1. Correspondence:

• JH, along with Coll CC, had written to our ward councillors to ask for an uplift in our yearly grant of £400. This matter will be discussed at the Council budget meeting on 25 February
• There will be a meeting with Laura Macdonald and Douglas Hendry from Argyll and Bute Council (ABC) and the Trust on 5 March about ‘Democracy Matters’, a Scottish Government and COSLA proposal to devolve some powers to lower levels of government
• Police report for January for Tiree and Coll: seven calls and three crimes

1. Meeting reports

• JH and GMG had attended the Tiree Climate Group Drop-in Session on 24 January. We had been very impressed
• JH had attended Coll CC: he had been asked to convey their gratitude to the working group behind Animal Health Tiree for re-establishing a veterinary service for the two islands. They had also had a discussion on the number of tar lorries sent to the island for road re-surfacing. Ferry problems often meant that some lorries did not make it, meaning the island did not get their allocated number. Their proposal is to compare the number of lorries arriving against those promised. The suggestion was that Tiree could do the same

1. Transport updates
2. Ferries

• A delegation of TCC and Tiree Transport Forum members had had an on-line meeting along with Coll CC and Coll Transport Committee reps on 21 January with the Scottish Government (SG) Cabinet Secretary for Transport Fiona Hyslop to address concerns from the Tiree and Coll communities. Issues conveyed to the Cabinet Secretary included:

1. a) The poor provision of our Barra Link Day on Wednesdays during summer 2025, when only about 50% of the planned sailings took place.
2. b) Both Tiree and Coll are concerned that the CalMac seasonal timetable consultations with our two communities are deeply flawed. CalMac is adamant that all proposals on timetable changes must be cost-neutral and not impact other communities. This means that Tiree and Coll have no scope to enhance our sea connectivity with Oban (for example, new additional Sunday double sailings over the peak summer season). This would not be cost-neutral, and it would impact the Colonsay and Islay communities that we share our ferry with. The shared ferry arrangement with Colonsay is deemed problematic to both Coll and Tiree.
3. c) We raised concerns about the imminent ferry replacement on our route. We requested reassurances that the MV Hebrides, being near the end of its planned operational life (it is currently 26 years old) will be kept fit for purpose and adequately maintained/refurbished.
4. d) In connection with the above, we urged the SG and CMAL to move expeditiously on a new ferry for our route.
5. e) Concerns were raised with the Cabinet Secretary on the accuracy of the CalMac deck space booking system. We have received a number of reports that the booking system indicates no space for vehicles when the car deck is not full.

• A further on-line meeting was held on the same day with the Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs, Land Reform and the Islands, Mairi Gougeon, and reps from Tiree, Coll, Mull, Iona, Islay and some Argyll and Bute Council (ABC) councillors on the Islands Business Resilience Fund. GMG reported that several companies have been unable to access the fund because either their workforce is self-employed or their turnover is below the threshold (for example a museum on Mull) and other reasons. We hoped the scheme could be extended or repeated next year with better rules
• A meeting of the group associated with the Deck Space Pilot has been urgently requested from CalMac by Tiree and Coll transport reps, as the last one was over a year ago
• We have the Clansman back till late Feb 26 then the LOTI back on our route again. However, the Clansmanwill not return to the Oban/Coll/Tiree run from its deployment up north until after the school Easter Holidays. Stephen Wood (the CalMac Oban Area Manager) has been asked to provide us with an update on any impact the reduced deck space capacity on the LOTI (in comparison to that available on the Clansman) will have on our ferry services over the anticipated busy Easter holiday period
• It has just been confirmed through Stephen Wood that the impacts of the forthcoming 8-hour, in-port vessel maintenance programme to the Clansman has still not been confirmed by CalMac, as to when this vessel maintenance will start or indeed what impact this maintenance regime will have on our 2026 summer timetable. I have urged Stephen for an answer to this matter. We suspect that the Barra link day is most at risk
• The bus and ferry pass are now being amalgamated. Travellers are recommended to apply as soon as possible

1. Air Transport to Glasgow

We are currently seeking clarity from Loganair on three issues:

1. a) Cancellation of the Sunday flight on 8 February whilst Twin Otter flights went out to Barra and surprisingly Islay that day.
2. b) Why passengers were notified that their respective flight bookings on Monday 9 Feb, Tuesday 10 Feb and Wednesday 11 Feb were cancelled then reinstated late on Sunday 8 Feb.
3. c) After Tiree Community Council received written confirmation from the Loganair CEO that Loganair’s overnight accommodation policy had not changed, three passengers on a cancelled GLA flight to TRE on last Thursday evening, 5 Feb, were advised initially by the Menzies rep to find their own hotel accommodation. After the Tiree passengers complained at the Menzies desk, the rep phoned someone within Loganair and that decision was overturned. We need reassurance this was an error at the Menzies desk and not standard practice.
4. d) Still awaiting confirmation from Loganair that our 2026 ‘banked flights’ for key Tiree events are fully in place through this air service operator, though progress slow on negotiations between Loganair and Tiree Rural Development on securing double-flights (on Saturdays) around our islands livestock sales needs for 2026. Shari from TRD is consulting directly with Loganair on this issue.
5. e) communications with the company is not as easy as it used to be
6. f) Luke Farajallah, the Loganair CEO, and his team are due to visit Tiree in April, and we will make these points to him directly.
7. Air Transport to Oban

An Annual Argyll Air Services Consultative meeting was held last month with Coll, Colonsay and Tiree transport reps in attendance, along with ABC councillors, Council managers and reps from HebAir Services and Task Air:

• Concerns were raised at the number of scheduled flight cancellations over the summer of 2025. Reps from Tiree, Coll and Colonsay were in agreement that this was a worrying trend and likely to put travellers off, as flights were increasingly deemed ‘unreliable’. Air service providers cited bad weather in particular, but also acknowledged there were issues with pilot sickness, airframe technical issues and the fact that their new Western Isles service is putting additional pressure on their fleet
• Community reps from Coll, Colonsay and Tiree requested that the current ‘days of the week’ of air-services through Oban to all three communities should be reviewed and possibly amended to better serve the three island communities. This process is at a very early stage, and JMC insisted that any proposed changes to the days Tiree flight to/from Oban must go through a community engagement process. The earliest changes could take place is winter 2026
• The three island communities have requested from the officers of ABC more frequent flight statistics (preferably monthly), as all we get at the moment are annual figures
• A new seasonal Search and Rescue Helicopter facility will open this spring with a dedicated Augusta Helicopter to be hangared at Oban Airport. This will reduce emergency helicopter deployment times to Coll and Tiree

9. Current status of the Tiree Library: the Helensburgh Leisure Centre roof has still not been repaired. This is putting a financial strain on liveArgyll and ABC. ABC have decided to reduce rather than increase the annual grant to liveArgyll. A proposal to close five libraries, including Tiree, will be put to the budget meeting on 25 February. The last running costs we have for the Tiree library was £18,000 per annum. We suspect the decision has already been taken in principle. We are in discussion with community leaders in Tarbert and Cardross.
   10. Broadband and R100: claiming compensation for the outage is proving anything but straightforward. Many thanks to Heather Wolfe, Senior Parliamentary Assistant to Jenni Minto, MSP, and Debbie Wilson from the Scottish Government. GMG has been helping people with these applications. Most properties are now capable of ordering full fibre. BT Openreach are in the process of checking the final properties that are not connected. People do need to put in an order, otherwise they will not get a connection. New builds need to notify Openreach six months in advance; they will probably have to pay for the installation. Openreach will have teams on the island for the next six months or so. The copper network cut-off date has not yet been decided. Around one-third of Tiree properties are currently connected to fibre. Openreach seems quite pleased with this take-up.
10. Projects: TCC purchased 11 phone boxes from BT in 2017. We asked for local interest. Four have been renovated:

• Caolas: defibrillator
• Scarinish: Solar food bank
• Mannal: painted and empty
• Balephuil: unfinished heritage exhibition

Awaiting renovation:

• Balevullin
• Silversands
• Crossapol
• Kenovay
• Heylipol
• Middleton
• Cornaigmore

A rough estimate for electrical decommissioning and removal is £400 per box £200. GMG and JH will meet to progress this before the election in May.

GMG will also contact the Trust about the community garden and the bike stands in Scarinish and Crossapol.

11. Planning applications since last meeting

• 26/00254/NMA Comraich, Mannal Non Material Amendment of Planning Permission 24/01153/PP
• 26/00186/PNELEC Loch Phuill pump house proposed installation of approximately 60m of underground cable
• 24/02056/DOC02 Caolas Request to discharge conditions relative to application 24/02056/PP

No imput from TCC is needed under our planning policy.

1. Argyll and Bute councillors’ reports: there were none

13. AOCB

• We congratulated Animal Care Tiree for setting up UK’s first community vet practice. We understood how much work had gone into this

• We noted that Tiree Broadband was closing in June. We noted the outstanding contribution this had made to the island, particularly following Storm Amy

• Argyll and Bute Council is waiting for the Scottish Government to re-legislate the Visitor Levy before deciding whether to adopt it

1. Date and format of next meeting: 11 March. Format not decided.

The meeting closed at 8.20pm.

Dr John Holliday 19 February 2026