We have been reliably informed that the timber yard on Market Road at Brodick has been sold to Forestry and Land Scotland. The transaction has been completed and the employees concerned have been informed so it is in the public domain.

We don’t know why FLS has bought this land but we can say without fear of contradiction that it makes FLS’s case for continuing with the Kings Cross project very much weaker. The facility on Market Road has been underused for the last few years so in the short to medium term there is no reason why all the harvested timber cannot be exported from Brodick saving further expenditure of millions of public money at Kings Cross and destroying the local environment.

The purchase of the timber yard at Brodick gives FLS the time to develop less expensive and environmentally less damaging alternatives if and when the quantity of timber harvested exceeds the capacity of the Brodick yard.

Any such alternative would be in addition to the capacity at Brodick and could be satisfied by less expensive and more readily achievable means such as the purchase of neighbouring land on Market Road or export by a Calmac operated freight service as is currently being provided to Troon