The THSG was re-energised in May this year with a flurry of interest from various interested parties. We developed a core steering committee made up of a selection of interested parties and drafted our Terms of Reference. It was decided that the groups focus for 2015 would be two pronged. Our first objective would be assisting the Milton Harbour Association (MHA) in getting much needed repairs to Milton Harbour and the second, much wider objective, is to look at our other harbours for development opportunities in order to capture both the leisure and commercial marine trade. The activities that we have conducted thus far are:
- Appointed Wallace Stone Consulting Engineers to inspect and draw up an indicative cost analysis for Milton Harbour in order for the MHA to seek funding.
- Assisted MHA with a Windfall funding application to conduct the above analysis. This application has subsequently been approved.
- Investigating the potential of funding and putting in 6-8 permanent moorings in Gott Bay.
- Investigating funding avenues for harbour developments.
In the next month the THSG is looking at sending a delegation of its members on a fact finding visit to some recently completed harbour projects in the Isles. The purpose of this visit is to gather as much information on the viability, risks and learnings from these projects in order for the steering group to be best placed in delivering a similar project on Tiree. Highland and Island Enterprise (HIE) have a fund available to support these types of visits through their Maximising Community Assets fund.
The steering group is looking for more members in order to get a more diverse and inclusive core committee. THSG is very active at the moment and feels it is starting to make some progress and therefore need the support from all parts of the community. If you are interested in joining the steering group, please send Paul le Roux an email paul@tireetrust.org.uk and join in.