An internationally acclaimed Highland restaurant has been hit by inter-agency confusion which has seen crucial tourist signs to the eatery removed, on the orders of the body promoting Scottish tourism.
The Loch Leven Seafood Café, which is located on the northern shore of loch on the road to Kinlochleven, has suffered significantly since the signs disappeared three weeks ago. On Saturday it had only seven arriving for lunch, compared to the average of 50 in April and May.
The restaurant is part of the Loch Leven Shellfish company operation which has been exporting live shellfish harvested from Scottish waters throughout Europe and the Far East for many years. It employs around, 30 people, one of the biggest employers in the area.
It is owned by John Grieve former leader of Glencoe Mountain Rescue Team, and his daughter Alison. He says the three brown tourist signs on the A82 near the northern approach to the Ballachulish Bridge, have been crucial to the success of the restaurant/café over the last decade. They had been well worth the £1200 he had paid to have them made.
“But about three weeks ago we noticed they had gone, which was having a drastic effect as we are about four miles off the main road, and rely on the signs to tell people where we are. We approached BEAR Scotland, Transport Scotland’s highways contractor, but they said they hadn’t taken them down. Alison emailed them three times that week asking where we could get new ones, and what we could do, but got no reply. She phoned repeatedly but they said they knew nothing about them. I drove up to see them at their office in Fort William, but was assured there was no way they would have taken them down.
“I spent most of a day crawling through the brambles looking for the signs because we assumed somebody had taken them down as an act of vandalism. When I couldn’t find them, I contacted the police, so their time has been wasted as well. Then BEAR came on to say yes they had in fact taken them down. They had been asked by VisitScotand to remove them because we were no longer a member of that organisation.
Mr Grieve said they he had left because he didn’t feel he enjoyed sufficient from membership. “But if VisitScotland had contacted us to warn us they were taking the signs down, we might have reconsidered membership.
“We had paid £1200 for them, in the first place, and have now paid for identical signs to be made. But we were told that we couldn’t put them up either, by BEAR. However Transport Scotland said we could because they had something called ‘grandfather rights’ having been in place for nine years.”
He said VisitScotland had since confirmed the signs belonged to the restaurant, and appeared to blame Bear Scotland
But a spokesman for VisitScotland told the Herald: “Only members of VisitScotland’s Quality Assurance Scheme are eligible to apply for a brown sign. Unfortunately, this business has not been in touch with us regarding their signs removal, but we would be happy to discuss the situation further.”
A spokeswoman for BEAR Scotland said: “As part of the £1m new cycleway improvements that are being carried out between Corran Ferry and Ballachulish, reviews of all road signs affected by the works were carried out with Transport Scotland and Visit Scotland.
“The signs will be re-erected as part of the upgrades and we have been liaising with the restaurant to keep them fully informed.”
John Grieve said this close liaison was news to him, "And our signs are still not back. But there are dozens of unofficial ones left standing."
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