01967 421 301Lochaline Filling Station
In 1998 the old fuel tanks above the High Street in Lochaline were condemned, Morvern was facing a future with no fuel pumps and so the community, through the community council and with the support of the regional council and HIE, decided to do something about it. In 1999 Morvern Community Development Company was formed. They purchased the land on three sides of Lochaline Stores from Tilcon, who operated the sand mine, and developed the new petrol and diesel filling station together with additional parking spaces for community use. Improvements have also been made to the bank below Lochaline Stores and the village hall car park, which are both under MCDC ownership. Later, MCDC leased the site of the minibus garage to the Morvern Community Transport Association (2000); purchased the adjoining Hazel Woods from the Forestry Commission (2003); and purchased, demolished and landscaped the Old Scout hut/mine workers accommodation block too (2013).
For the last 15 years, the petrol pumps have been leased to Lochaline Stores under a lease and operating agreement. In December 2014, due to business restructure, Lochaline Stores have asked MCDC to look into terminating the lease agreement so that MCDC’s now well established trading arm Morvern Community Trading Company (MCTC), already running the business of Lochaline Harbour, could also take on the business of running the petrol pumps.
After some consideration and consultation with the community, MCDC have decided that the pumps would be taken on by MCTC. In order to make it a viable project, while providing a vital service to the community, MCDC had to make the system fully automated.
The installation of fully automated 24/7 Lochaline Filling Station took place on 15th June 2015. This is when Lochaline Stores stopped operating the petrol pumps on behalf of the community.
The fully automated system is working well, after some teething problems. Lochaline Filling Station is run for and on behalf of the community.
We would like to extend our thanks to Lochaline Stores who ran the pumps for the last 15 years and to community volunteers who helped with the installation at various stages.