POLICE aim to have more information available for visitors on driving conditions in Argyll and Bute, an officer has said.
Concerns were raised at a meeting of community figures about tourists being unaware of road regulations when they visit Islay.
Inspector Roddy MacNeill said that work was ongoing to educate visitors, and to distribute resources among hotels and hire companies.
Assurance was also given that Islay High School pupils can expect the same presentation on road safety as other schools in the area.
The discussion took place at a meeting of Argyll and Bute Council’s Mid Argyll, Kintyre and the Islands community planning group on Wednesday, November 5.
Chris Abel, of Islay Community Council, said: “I am very impressed by the idea of road safety presentations. You said you will roll it out to all high schools, and doing it on Islay would be great.
“The problems of driving on rural roads are really underestimated. The surfaces are terrible and often there are no road markings.
“Lots of drivers on Islay are not from here and not really used to the road conditions, so I wondered if there was any information you could give visitors to islands. This would give them an idea of the sort of things they should be aware of.”
Inspector MacNeill responded: “We did not get to Islay, but we can get it done next time around. We will make that happen.
“We got over to Mull this year, and all the mainland, but we can get Islay into the next round of school visits. We hope to get more localised officers to take management.
“We have a lot of resources from Transport Scotland, including leaflets in different languages. We also get brake and clutch covers for motorbikes.
“That might sound really basic, but we had an issue a couple of years ago with visitors driving on the wrong side of the road.
“We attended a tourist event at Lochgoilhead last year and have contacts from the hotel industry to see about getting resources into hotels for people to lift as they go in and out.
“We also hope that Transport Scotland will be able to get these resources into the bigger hire companies for tourists as they drive away from the airports.”
