Council Leader Welcomes Chancellor’s Announcement

The Highland Council welcomes the reallocation of £20 million from within the Inverness & Highland City Region Deal to fund essential landside infrastructure improvements for the Corran Ferry, as part of the UK Government’s Autumn statement.

Leader of the Council Raymond Bremner said: “While we are of course disappointed that Highland did not receive levelling up funding in the latest round, the reallocation of £20 million from the Inverness and Highland City Region Deal is extremely welcome and will go some way to enable essential shoreside infrastructure improvements for the Corran Ferry.

“I am pleased that our active engagement with the UK Government has resulted in this positive announcement. It represents an important first step in taking forward a sustainable and resilient solution for this life-line service. Today’s news demonstrates the success of our approach of working constructively with government to help deliver a new ferry for the Corran Narrows. More needs to be done and the Council is working hard to secure all the funding required to provide a replacement ferry for the benefit of both our communities and visitors."

Convener of the Council Bill Lobban added: “This is really good news and a huge step forward in delivering a sustainable, long term solution to the Corran Ferry problem which has blighted the community for many months.”

The funding will be used for shoreside infrastructure which will provide modern berthing facilities that can accommodate a wider range of roll on- roll off ferries and provide health and safety improvements for the crew.  The Council has previously allocated £1.6m towards the design of these facilities, and that project is now well advanced. A further report will be brought to full Council to set out the key steps as we move forward. 

The Inverness and Highland City Region deal is a joint initiative supported by up to £315m investment from the UK and Scottish governments, The Highland Council, Highlands and Islands Enterprise and University of the Highlands and Islands, aimed at stimulating sustainable regional economic growth.