Seil Chat

Gee, thanks for the welcome. Aye, I live here, a single personality with multiple issues.
On a lighter note I was going to suggest swinging a bucket between the pylons on an endless rope but that would be silly so I won't.
It's as sensible as a closed causeway though.

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Interestingly I see a local yachting figure of some renown has gone on record in the Oban Times as saying he won't miss Cuan because the Sound of Luing is just as convenient for him. He proposes tidal turbines in the causeway and sees this as a win-win situation.

A couple of points spring to mind. Firstly, while using the Sound of Luing rather than Cuan may not inconvenience Mr. Kincaid, who is based in Oban, it is a different matter for the Balvicar fishing fleet, who will need to burn considerably more diesel getting to their fishing grounds to the West.

Secondly, there are no turbines commercially available suitable for this type of installation; most barrage-installed turbines have a facility for controlling the head of water at either side of the barrier, they are not designed for continuous (reversible) freeflow. In any event if all tidal flow through the sound is diverted through turbines experiences in Annapolis at the tidal station there suggest that the the fish kill rate is likely to be unacceptably high.

There are free-sited tidal turbines available that could sit on the seabed in Cuan and generate more power while leaving the bulk of the passage for unencumbered transit of fish and cetaceans. The efficiency and cost of these will reduce in years to come. Using the red herring of tidal power as justification for a causeway is disingenuous when the council's intention is 'solve' the 'problem' as quickly and cheaply as possible. A high level bridge would leave Cuan free for future development as tidal power technology matures, while the quick fix of a causeway is likely to close that option forever.

See link below - quite a list of problems with a causeway .

http://forargyll.com/2010/02/leaf-comes ... ixed-link/

LEAF against something new...... surprise surprise. Still causeway is a bad idea

It seems most are against a causeway myself included

..and as you would expect LEAF are too. However, I would expect their objections to be on environmental grounds and environmental grounds only but no we've pseudo-political, socioeconomic objections too.

What's going on there LEAF?

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Apparently the new survey confirmed the original charted depths in the Sound - something Eric or myself could have done for much less. This means that the causeway plan is almost certainly now permanently shelved; I wonder how much of our council tax Argyll and Bute Council spent on that, and if FLAG will be making a contribution.