Big plans for Ullapool waterfront lodged with Highland Council
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A plan to create a promenade along the waterfront of beautiful Ullapool has been lodged with Highland Council planners.
The ambitious multi-million pound plans will transform the fishing and ferry port that has become a major Wester Ross visitor magnet.
Ullapool Harbour Trust want to widen Shore Street and develop the foreshore with a loch-side walkway and a small boat harbour with pontoons.
Ullapool Harbour Trust is in collaboration with Transport Scotland and the Ullapool Promenade Group, a sub-group of the local community council, to bring the plan forward.
The trust seeks consent from Scottish ministers for what they say will be the improvements which were suggested several years ago after safety concerns about traffic congestion in the busy Ullapool-Stornoway ferry port.
Shore Street struggles to cope with the ever expanding amount of traffic pouring into Ullapool, particularly during the summer months.
With parked cars, heavy trucks struggle to pass each other moving to and from the ferry ramp, and there are fears for the safety of pedestrians.
To make matters worse, the popularity of the North Coast 500 route has added even more traffic.
Lochbroom Community Council chairman Topher Dawson said the project, first proposed more than three years ago, is "a huge deal for Ullapool."
He added: “One of the problems Ullapool faces is that there’s about 1,800 people living here and 18,000 on the Isle of Lewis but everything that is used in Lewis passes along Ullapool’s Shore Street.
“There is over 300,000 tonnes of freight a year in lorries rumbling up and down Shore Street so we have a little fishing village which is on the road to a much bigger community. We’re not complaining about that but we have to find a way of reconciling the effect that has on Ullapool’s tourist trade because the place where visitors congregate to admire the loch and the view is Shore Street.
“This will be long-term infrastructure that we hope will improve life for everybody. It’s a wonderful piece of betterment for the whole village.”
Consultants TGP were commissioned by the trust to design the prom which will involve building out around six metres towards the sea allowing the widening of the trunk road and creating new pavements along with a promenade. A floating breakwater will provide better provision for working small boats and visiting yachts.
A higher sea wall will be built to protect the village from rising sea levels.
If approved, TGP intend using as much local and natural material in the project as possible, especially paving and street furniture.
Caithness stone has been included in the sea wall design.
Best practice accessibility will be built in to ensure that all areas and facilities are accessible by all. The crossing points and build-outs have been designed and located to relate to facilitating free movement for all and also link up with the various alleys that lead from Shore Street through into the rest of the town.
Public art is included in the project design, though no appointments for artists have yet been made and the exact nature of the artworks is therefore as yet undetermined.
