What’s going on?

The short answer to this question is, “Who knows?”

139 of the original 142 objections to Argyll & Bute Council’s (A&BC) proposals for a Municipal Harbour Authority for Oban are still outstanding. There has been no direct contact initiated by A&BC or by Transport Scotland (TS) with objectors in relation to these since the end of the formal consultation a year ago. Meanwhile a number of other, more recently submitted, Harbour Orders (HO) have been decided. In addition there has been no substantive contact between TS and A&BC with regard to the HO since March 2025.

OCC and OCHDA have jointly written to the Cabinet Secretary for Transport, Fiona Hyslop, asking her to intervene directly to ensure that a decision is made as soon as possible. You can read that letter here. Sadly Fiona Hyslop has rejected the invitation to become directly involved, clearly failing to understand the issue and her role!

Over the last year OCHDA has repeatedly offered to sit down with A&BC and/or with TS to consider how to address the many outstanding objections. All these offers have been refused.

How long does it take to get a decision on a Harbour Order?

It’s almost 2 years since A&BC formally submitted their draft Harbour Revision Order (HRO) to TS having submitted an initial draft in December 2022. Since then no indication has been given regarding the likely decision or even the timescale for decision-making.

TS have stated that 2 years is not unusual for the time taken to reach a decision over a proposed H O. This is hardly true now, if it ever was, and is an incomplete response to the question about Oban’s HRO in any case. Of the 13 Orders submitted since April 2020 no decision, other than Oban, has taken more than a year whereas 5 of the 13 applications submitted between April 2008 and April 2011 took more than a year to determine.

The table here shows all HO applications recorded on the TS website which became subject to the statutory consultation process and the date on which a decision was made.

Meanwhile the risk continues and grows with proposals to develop the Harbour stalled!

What have we been doing?

We continue to press A&BC to withdraw their current proposals and to sit down with Stakeholders to develop new proposals which would be acceptable to all. We have done this directly and through the Oban Bay Management Group which was the original driving force in the establishment of a new Harbour Authority. Our approaches have been rejected.

In support of our requests our MSPs have also weighed in, both with A&BC and with TS, stressing the need to get the process moving. The response has been the same, hiding behind the statutory process. As noted above, most recently we have written to Fiona Hyslop MSP urging her to get directly involved – without success.

In anticipation that TS may advise the Minister to approve the HRO as drafted, we are preparing our arguments for a Judicial Review. If this is necessary we shall require financial resources, to engage a KC, and intellectual resources: arguments as to why the process undertaken has been flawed with the resulting HRO not fit for purpose, and what should have been done. Work on the arguments to support the call for a Judicial Review is well under way, emphasising the flawed development of the original draft HRO as well as the formal consultation process and the lack of engagement with objectors. The current Committee and other members have this work well in hand but we shall need direct financial support to engage with our legal advisers and the KC. We will rely on support from OCHDA members, principally, to raise the necessary funds.

In the event that no decision emerges soon, and with the expected continued refusal by A&BC to reconsider their proposals, OCHDA’s Committee are giving serious consideration to the development and submission of a Harbour Empowerment Order (HEO), creating a new Harbour Authority with responsibility for the wider waters of the Bay and Approaches, following the earlier proposed harbour limit to the South and excluding Ardentrive Bay based on the OCHDA draft HRO. While far from ideal this would be preferable to A&BC’s proposals. The Committee is approaching other Trust Ports for advice and will be assembling a ‘prospectus’ to explain the proposal to the wider community.