
First Corran Ferry foot passenger fare to be introduced
The group of councillors had raised concerns about an impact on residents and businesses.Andrew Baxter, Liberal Democrat councillor for Fort William and Ardnamurchan, led calls for a debate at a meeting of the full council.The fare would only apply to passengers aged 23 to 60 years old.It would include cyclists, although there would be no extra charge for the bicycle.The alternative journey by road around Loch Linnhe takes about two hours.Highland Council describes the Corran Ferry as Europe's busiest single-vessel car ferry.It carries about 10,000 foot passengers, 270,000 cars and 11,000 commercial vehicles a year.Highland Council said a £2 charge could generate £20,516 a year.Councillors agreed to a 10% increase on vehicle fares in March, but left a decision on foot passengers to the economy and infrastructure committee.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


The Independent
23 minutes ago
- The Independent
Will Trump's visit go with a swing – or is it on course for disaster?
Hundreds of guards, high perimeter fences, watchtowers... no, it's not Alligator Alcatraz but a corner of rural Ayrshire, where Donald Trump owns a little golf course. After the eagle has landed, he will be enjoying a little downtime before heading off to his other international links, up in Aberdeenshire. That's the Trump International – as some recently installed unofficial signage wittily added, 'Twinned with Epstein Island '. Anyway, he's overpaid, oversexed, and over here, and he's going to get a mixed reception. Will he meet the King? Not on this occasion. Inexplicably, the environmentally conscious, vaguely progressive monarch won't be at Balmoral, so handy for the Trump International course. Therefore, not even a plate of Duchy Original oatcakes will be laid on for the 47th president by His Majesty. Instead, the King and Queen will be sequestered at Windsor Castle, phone off the hook. However, the red carpet, tiaras and gold plate will be on full ostentatious royal display when Trump returns for his full state visit, his second, from 17 to 19 September. Even Trump should be impressed by the quantity of gilt, solid silver and precious jewels he'll be surrounded by. It'll be just like the redecorated Oval Office, but less gaudy. Will he address both houses of parliament? Again, circumstances have somehow worked against the planners. By unusually bad luck, parliament will be in recess for both visits, so President Trump won't have the pleasure of being able to spot Nigel Farage, Lord Mandelson, Lady May or any other old acquaintances at such a gathering. On the plus side, he'll be spared some unruly types shouting 'Free Palestine' and 'Release the Epstein Files'. Trump says he's not bothered about all that, even if President Macron, President Reagan, and President Barack Hussein Obama (as Mr Trump likes to call him), among others, have been granted the honour. Just as well, eh? What about the prime minister? Good news here. After plenty of golf, and inspecting the finest courses in the world (by far, actually; there's nowhere like them anywhere; there really isn't; make golf great again...), he's got a little time booked in with Keir Starmer on Monday. For reasons no one understands, Trump gets on with this woke, radical, left-wing human rights lawyer, so you never know what might emerge. Starmer is keeping it fairly light – so no negotiations on steel tariffs, for example – but he will have to raise the Middle East. Even Trump must be uncomfortable seeing pictures of starving infants in Gaza, and the first lady might also have pointed out that Benjamin Netanyahu has been playing America along. Unlikely to be a bust-up, anyway, given that Starmer has so far declined to follow Macron in recognising full Palestinian statehood. Less happily, Scottish first minister John Swinney has managed to wangle a meeting with Trump (something denied to Nicola Sturgeon in her day), and might wind him up a bit, Zelensky-style. Let's hope so: the fallout could be spectacular. Any chance of the Blimp flying? It's possible. There are reports that the giant inflatable model of Trump as a mewling baby in a nappy, seen on previous visits, is being readied, but probably more for London. In Scotland, its appearance anywhere near the president might invite an attack from an F-16. Is Trump really half Scottish? Afraid so, aye. His mum, Mary Anne MacLeod (b 1912), came from the Outer Hebrides and emigrated (presumably legally) to the United States in 1930. She married Fred Trump six years later, gave birth to Donald in 1946, and the rest, as they say, is Trumpery.


Telegraph
24 minutes ago
- Telegraph
Starmer is in the rough. Could Cameron get him out?
US President Donald Trump is in Scotland to visit his golf courses and meet Sir Keir Starmer, despite the fact that our PM does not play golf. Perhaps David Cameron can help? The former Conservative prime minister teamed up with former Irish prime minister Enda Kenny in the Pro-Am Senior Open at Sunningdale with three-time golf major winner Padraig Harrington – and won. 'I am doing my bit for Anglo-Irish relations,' Cameron tells me, describing Kenny, 74, as 'a canny golfer – like Trump.' Cameron, 58, famously played golf with Barack Obama when the former US president visited the UK in 2016. Both have improved their handicaps since then. 'When I played Obama he was a 14 and I was a 21 – I've made it to 15 but he's gone all the way to six.' There is life after politics, at least on the golf course. Barry's friends Labour MP Barry Gardiner has proved to be an unlikely hit with GB News viewers due to his regular appearances on the channel. He tells me that so far he has been sent 'one tie, a key ring and a bottle opener' in the post from viewers, and even one proposal of marriage. He accepted the first three, and declined the fourth, which must be a relief to Mrs Gardiner, a noted poet. Gyles's toothpaste An update from the bathroom of Gyles Brandreth. 'I regard my bathroom mirror as my enemy, not my friend,' the 77-year-old TV presenter tells The Oldie magazine. 'That's why I tend not to have the lights full-on when I'm brushing my teeth. And that's why the other night I squeezed Voltarol instead of toothpaste on to my toothbrush. I know I must be getting older. I couldn't tell the difference.' Ministers' latitude It's a big festival weekend, not least the thousands who are attending Latitude in Suffolk. I hear one group of Labour ministers are hiring a house nearby so they can get to listen to the music and sleep in a comfortable bed each night. For the few, not the many. Brandon's healthy approach Actress Glynis Barber, 69, has an enthusiastic interest in wellbeing and anti-ageing; her actor husband Michael Brandon, 80, doesn't. The pair co-starred in 1980s cop TV series Dempsey & Makepeace. Barber says: 'He literally has no interest whatsoever. However, he has the benefit of living with me. So I have foisted organic food on him. I read boring articles on the benefits of a certain supplement or the latest findings of what fat does to the body. [But] he just glazes over, tries to listen and then literally falls asleep.' Arise Lord Norris? Former Conservative minister Steven Norris has led a 'frankly ridiculous life', his son Harry declared in an affectionate speech at a dinner to celebrate his father's 80th birthday this week. 'Not many people can say they've been shot at beside President Carter, taken the late Queen on her first Thames Clipper ride or been kissed by both Yasser Arafat and Hugh Grant,' said Harry. Norris Snr, who was also Tory candidate for London mayor in 2000 and 2004, has inexplicably never been rewarded with a peerage. He responded to Harry's speech by inviting his friends to his 90th birthday party in 10 years' time. Ozzy and Tony


The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
Von der Leyen to meet Trump in Scotland with EU-US deal apparently imminent
The EU appears to be on the verge of signing a trade deal with Donald Trump after the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, announced she would meet the US president on Sunday during his four-day trip to Scotland. Trump was scheduled to land on Friday evening ahead of the opening of his new golf course in Aberdeenshire and was already scheduled to meet the British prime minister, Keir Starmer, on Monday. The European Commission said von der Leyen's visit was at Trump's invitation. Ireland's taoiseach, Micheál Martin, said on Friday a deal would 'hopefully be signed off before the weekend is over'. Before boarding an Air Force One flight to Glasgow, the US president had said the EU only had a '50/50' chance of a deal but later said his teams were working 'diligently' to land the 'big one' with the bloc, potentially signalling an end to the threat of a trade war. At the same time Trump heaped praise on Starmer and Scotland's first minister, John Swinney, and said the French president, Emmanuel Macron, was 'a team player' but that France's recognition of Palestine as a state would not 'carry any weight'. Trump said he was looking forward to meeting Swinney. Before boarding the presidential plane , he told journalists: 'The Scottish leader is a good man, so I look forward to meeting him.' He said he had a 'lot of love' for Scotland. Trump also hinted he was looking for more concessions from the EU, saying that Japan had had a worse chance than Brussels of getting a deal but succeeded after offering more to the US. Von der Leyen said she 'had a good call' with Trump before he landed in Scotland and they had 'agreed to meet in Scotland on Sunday to discuss transatlantic trade relations, and how we can keep them strong'. While signalling he was not yet ready to sign a deal with Brussels, Trump would not be meeting von der Leyen unless a deal was to be signed, sources have said. Trump also hinted he was ready to widen the deal he had already agreed with the UK, fuelling speculation he could finally eliminate the 25% tariff he imposed on steel. 'This week we want to talk about certain aspects [of the trade deal] which are going to be good for both countries; more fine tuning. We are also going to be doing a little celebrating together because you know we get along very well,' he said. 'We are going to have a good time I think. The prime minister and I get along very well; the Scottish leader too, we have a lot of things, my mother was born in Scotland, and he's a good man … so I'm looking forward to meeting him.' Asked about a trade deal with the EU, he said: 'I would say that we have a 50/50 chance, maybe less than that … I would have said we had a 25% chance with Japan, and they kept coming back, and we made a deal.' The EU is resigned to an agreement in principle on 15% baseline tariffs including on cars, which will make brands from Volvo to Volkswagen more costly to export than Range Rovers from Britain, which carved out a deal allowing 100,000 cars a year to be exported at a 10% tariff. On Friday, Volkswagen laid bare the cost of Trump's import tariffs saying it had taken a £1bn hit in the first half of the year as a direct result. Trump struck a deal with Starmer in May reducing tariffs on cars from 27.5% to 10% in exchange for increases in US imports of beef and ethanol. While it is now being seen as a clever move by Starmer, the ethanol industry says it is fighting for survival after the prime minister opened the sluice gates to US ethanol, which is used in E10 biofuel in filling stations around the UK. The president of the National Farmers' Union, Tom Bradshaw, told the Guardian his 'biggest worry' was that Starmer would sell farmers out by allowing US dairy products in. 'We understand the US is pushing very very hard for dairy access and for us that is a real red line as they use hormones that we stopped using in dairy production 30 years ago.' He said the farming sector could not 'give any more' and warned Starmer not to use agriculture as a sacrificial lamb. Before boarding Air Force One, Trump claimed he would have sealed deals with nearly all of the 60 countries he threatened with punitive tariffs by next Friday, his self-imposed deadline for agreements. 'Most of the deals are finished … I don't want to hurt countries but we're going to send a letter out sometime during the week and it's basically going to say you're going to pay 10%, you're going to pay 50%, you're going to pay maybe less, I don't know,' he said. He said he had not 'really had a lot of luck with Canada' but he was not focused on it, and rather was 'working very diligently with Europe, the EU' to get a deal.