The pressure a tourism boom has put on ferry services to the Outer Hebrides is to lead to calls at a key meeting this week for more ferries to cope with the demand.
More than £100m of public money has already been spent - or is being spent - on the three-year-old Stornoway to Ullapool ferry MV Loch Seaforth, a new ship for the triangle service between Skye, Harris and North Uist and costly associated pier and infrastructure works.
But ahead of Thursday's meeting of Western Isles Council's Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, its chairman has called for more ferries to alleviate the passenger pressure.
The meeting comes in the wake of a row over a suggestion by islas' MSP Aladair Allan to tax motorhomes which he says are clogging up ferries and causing infrastructure problems around the islands.
Dr Allan has asked the Scottish government to consider introducing a "motorhome levy" to help islanders better handle increased numbers of the vehicles.
He said the number of holidaymakers travelling to the Outer Hebrides in motorhomes has "shot up" ten fold in a decade to more than 4000 now coming by ferry. On the route from Uig on Skye to Tarbert on Harris the numbers alone have soared from from 354 to 1,497.
But Outer Hebrides Tourism say is "wholly unacceptable to suggest that we want to tax any of our visitors before they come here on holiday" and the campers on wheels are worth £2million per year to the local economy.
Now Western Isles Council has welcomed a new round of stakeholder engagement and consultation on ferry services affecting its islands - but warns that "the present ferry operation to the Outer Hebrides are not providing sufficient capacity."
Brian Fulton, Director of Community and Stakeholder Engagement, will provide an update at this Thursday's meeting on the establishment of a community board set-up by Cal Mac to discuss ferry issues.
Committee chairman Cllr Uisdean Robertson said: "We warmly welcome this new consultation and stakeholder engagement on ferry services affecting us here in the Western Isles. These are lifeline services which are of huge importance to our economy and it is vitally important that people share their views.
"As the summer progressed, the ferry capacity issues in the Outer Hebrides became increasingly acute.
"The council has long been of the view that the present ferry operation to the Outer Hebrides are not providing sufficient capacity during increasing peak periods to service the needs of the community.
"The council would once again call on the Scottish Government to provide a second vessel on the Stornoway Ullapool route.
"In the next couple of months, people will be looking to book ahead for next summer and the current lack of capacity is impacting on the lifeline nature of the service and is an increasing inhibitor to economic growth and population retention.
"Whilst we welcome the prioritisation by Transport Scotland of a larger replacement vessel for the triangle route (of Uig, Tarbert and Lochmaddy), we continue to be of the view that the current and continuing capacity issues on that specific route can only be fully resolved by the provision of separate vessels serving North Uist and Harris.
"We are pleased that Transport Scotland have now recognised and accepted that there are already very real capacity constraints on certain routes to and within the Outer Hebrides and the impact they are having; the council will continue to work with Transport Scotland and other key stakeholders in the identification and appraisal of the options for improvement."
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