Council approves plans for new slipway for Tolstachaolais in Isle of Lewis in Outer Hebrides

Plans for a new slipway and breakwater for a village in the Outer Hebrides have been approved.

The planning bid will see the new slipway for the village of Tolstachaolais on the west side of the Isle of Lewis.

It has been approved by the Comhairle nan Eilean Siar’s Planning Applications Board, subject to conditions.

Decision on the planning application, submitted by Carloway Community Council, had been referred to the Board after the Comhairle received 11 representations on the proposals, including seven objections.

The plans include the development of a 40m x 6m slipway with a new breakwater being built into the inter-tidal area of East Loch Roag, along with a new parking and turning area for six cars at the head of the slipway.

Rock for the development will come from material excavated from a rocky outcrop at the headland development site.

The Board approved the development, subject to a number of conditions outlined in a report before its members, that would “mitigate and manage potential adverse effects” of the development as identified.

Comhairle planning officers gave a detailed presentation of the relevant planning matters of the development to the Board, and confirmed that while some data had been received with regard to otters at the site – a European Protected Species – a full report on the presence/absence of the species at the site, and any impacts of the development on the species, had not been received at the time of the meeting.

Members of the Board agreed including a condition in the planning consent for “any additional otter mitigation condition(s) deemed necessary as determined by the depute chief executive.”