Stornoway Port is the primary port for the Outer Hebrides, which makes it one of the busiest ports on the west coast, north of the Clyde. Alex MacLeod, Chief Executive of Stornoway Port Authority, points out that the port is a hub for the aquaculture sector in the region, which accounts for around one fifth of Scottish fish farming production.
This together with fishing (the annual catch in the area has an annual value of some £10 million), ferries and marine tourism, make up the principal lines of business for the port. Stornoway, MacLeod notes, is a key gateway for the £53 million-a-year tourism sector in the Outer Hebrides.
"We have had a reasonably busy 2016 across all our revenue lines – plus of course we had the commotion created by an oil rig being washed ashore on the west side of the island for two or three months last year! Our main focus for the year, though, was to create a Port Masterplan," he notes. The idea behind the Master Plan is to enable the Port Authority together with its strategic partners, who include the Local Authority, to take a high level strategic view of the Port over the next 20 years.
"We have a multi-phase infrastructure plan now, so at this point, our immediate next step is to look at how we fund the infrastructure plan going forward. One of the projects we are looking at is a deep water berth with a large lay-by area behind it. The projected costs for this are around £50m and we see this project getting started within the next five years."
A new deep water berth would allow the port to attract a range of new businesses, including large cruise liners and activity from the renewables and the oil and gas markets.
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