A NEW ferry service which cuts two hours off the journey to the Inner Hebridean isle of Jura is to be officially launched on Friday.

The service, which has been up and running since June, is bringing more visitors to the island and giving islanders their first direct ferry link with the mainland in 30 years. The passenger service between Craighouse on Jura and Tayvallich on the Argyll mainland is operated by a 36ft Rigid Inflatable Boat.

It gets islanders to Tayvallich, Mid Argyll, in just 55 minutes. The alternative link to the mainland is a three-hour journey to Kennacraig, Kintyre, via Islay.

THE island described by one-time resident George Orwell as "extremely un-get-atable" is once again threatened with inglorious isolation. Residents of Jura fear their only direct link to the mainland could be severed, forcing them to revert to a lengthy detour via neighbouring Islay.

A new passenger ferry has carried 4,500 people since it was launched last year, providing an important economic boost to the Hebridean isle with a population of just 210. However, the summer service faces a funding shortfall of up to £30,000 which could cut short sailings next year.

It is the hideaway which George Orwell famously described as “an extremely un-get-at-able place” and where he wrote his acclaimed novel 1984. Now it appears Orwell’s statement about Jura will ring even truer as its direct ferry to the mainland is under serious threat.

Although the Prime Minister likes to take his holidays on the island – where 210 people live today – a lack of other visitors means that unless £12,500 can be found soon, the first direct ferry service to the mainland in almost 40 years will have to cease in the middle of next month – six weeks before the end of a three-year pilot. If that happens nobody knows whether the ferry, which runs from the beginning of April to the end of September, will ever start again.

FUNDING for an award-winning direct ferry service between Jura and the mainland is expected to be cut today, sparking fury from islanders and hoteliers. Argyll and Bute Council is due to announce at a meeting that it will not renew a grant subsidy of around £25,000 to the service linking Jura to Tayvallich, delivering a blow to the fragile island economy.

The passenger service between Craighouse and Tayvallich in Knapdale – the first direct service to the mainland in 40 years – had been run by a community company from Easter to the end of September since 2008. However, it needs a subsidy of about 55%, which islanders insist is modest compared to other transport services. The island’s main transport links go through the neighbouring island, Islay.

By July last year the direct service had carried 6000 passengers – with a maximum of 12 at a time –and contributed £30,000 to the economy of the island of 200 people. A Facebook campaign to save the service has been launched by islanders who fear the impact on the community if it is lost. A spokeswoman for the campaign, said: “The ferry has been a huge success for the Isle of Jura.”

The following is from The Herald: