A VITAL ferry service that islanders feared had sailed for the final time last year will be relaunched after funding was secured for another two years.
Many of the 200 islanders of Jura welcomed the news yesterday that Transport Scotland has given more than £100,000 to support the passenger service to the Argyll mainland.
The ferry will leave Craighouse, the island's main settlement, for Tayvallich on Loch Sween at 8.45am on Thursday morning and will cross the Sound of Jura six days a week till the end of September.
Last year, reduced public support meant the service only operated at weekends for half the season, prompting concerns it was the prelude to the island losing its first direct service to the mainland for 40 years.
However, despite some nail-biting over the winter, Transport Scotland has announced that the Isle of Jura Development Trust will receive funding of £106,192 to run the service over the summer months this year and in 2013.
The Scottish Government will pay 80% of the total, with Argyll and Bute Council providing the remainder.
Transport Minister Keith Brown said: "Jura is one of the gems of our many wonderful islands, and we are delighted to help with the necessary support which will ensure local communities continue to feel all of the benefits that increased tourism and footfall on the island will bring."
Between 1961 and 2001, Jura's population declined more than 30% from 249 to 174.
The fragility of the community was recognised in 2004 when it was designated an Initiative at the Edge area, having failed to respond to efforts to encourage economic development.
Until the early 1970s, a Caledonian MacBrayne ferry called at Craighouse.
However, with the end of a direct link to Jura, islanders were forced to take a CalMac ferry to Islay before crossing the Sound of Islay to the mainland.
Catherine McCallum, who took over the Jura Hotel with her husband Andy two years ago, is a member of the development trust and is in no doubt the new direct service from Tayvallich, which costs £20 each way and takes under an hour, is a vital link for the island.
She said: "We haven't known Jura without the summer ferry. But it would have been a terrible blow to the island if we had lost it. So the funding for the next two years is most welcome.
"It has been great for getting last-minute visitors. Those who are coming for longer stays use the CalMac ferry to Islay then on to Jura.
"But there were plenty of people who would just decide to come for a night or a weekend because they could leave their cars in Tayvallich and jump on the ferry. There were also people who use it to come over for the day, have a meal and go back.
"Importantly, it is also so handy for islanders who want to go to the mainland for a day, to Oban or Lochgilphead. They can do that and still be back the same day. It just makes Jura feel a little less isolated."
The ferry service's website states: "When George Orwell came to Jura to write 1984 he described it as being 'an extremely un-gett-able place'... Not any more!"
Ferry operator Nicol MacKinnon said: "This will be the fifth season, but last year was a bit of a disaster because of funding problems so we were only running at weekends, and although we carried about 2000 [passengers] it wasn't ideal.
"But this year we will get a proper run at it, with two return sailings five days a week and one on Sunday. Wednesday is the only day we won't be operating.
"Overall, about 12,000 must have used the ferry since it started, but now we have two years to promote it."
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