Introduced a business improvement grant - to support business growth across the island and to help make our towns and villages more attractive

Opened a Special Projects grant fund to support new ideas that will help local communities and grow visitor numbers

Launched a small events grant to try to bring more activity during the quieter months

Agreed to support existing groups with Halloween and Christmas events

We are exploring new projects with Port Bannatyne Development Trust and the Marina

We have submitted planning for Playground Games on the pier

We are continuing with our regional marketing campaign to support tourism growth and the latest update from Calmac shows that year on year visitor numbers are up by 16% - a great endorsement that our marketing is having an impact

We have also met with the Pavilion and Winter Gardens teams to see how we can work together

We have also been asked to host a BID - what's next and ideas meeting in October in the Shinty Club. We will hear from Phil Prentice our Interim project manager and Andrew Spence from Bid4Oban, and then we are open to listen to your ideas as to how we improve things for the Island going forward. Details of this meeting will be publicised early October.