A quick community update on two ongoing matters that many of you have been following.

The deadline for BEAR Scotland to meet with Garve and District Community Council regarding traffic speed and speeding through Garve has now passed.

Transport Scotland's Chief Executive, Alison Irvine, instructed BEAR Scotland in February 2026 that this meeting should take place by 31 May 2026. Unfortunately, that deadline came and went without the meeting taking place.

As a reminder, Ms Irvine's letter to Maree Todd MSP can be read here.

Following the missed deadline, we have asked Maree Todd MSP's office to intervene on our behalf.

With Garve Public Hall sadly currently out of use for the foreseeable future, due to surface water flooding, making an in person meeting difficult, we have, through Maree's office, invited BEAR Scotland to attend our next Community Council meeting on Tuesday 4 August. We hope they will accept the invitation and that we can finally move this important issue forward.

Many residents will remember the long awaited UNESCO Wester Ross Biosphere sign planned for the A835 on the approach to Garve.

Last summer the Development Company asked Garve and District Community Council to help take this forward, as nothing had been progressed. It is fair to say that almost everyone originally involved before the pandemic has since moved on, with the exception of Tina at the Development Company. Our role in this is purely acting as a facilitator between Transport Scotland and the WRB.

Since taking on the challenge the Community Council has been enganged in email ping pong with Wester Ross Biosphere and Transport Scotland! What initially appeared to be a straightforward project has proved anything but.

This has mainly been because there is a significant amount of legislation and guidance governing the installation of signs on trunk roads. Among other requirements, signs must meet strict positioning criteria, including being mounted 1.8 metres above ground level, and Transport Scotland must be satisfied that any new sign is necessary and proportionate.

To help work through the various technical requirements, Transport Scotland arranged a Teams meeting on 3 July. Representatives from the Community Council and Wester Ross Biosphere attended. The sign designer had accepted the invitation but, unfortunately, did not join the meeting, we suspect it was simply an oversight.

Our previous update s at Community Council meetings we explained that the new UNESCO sign would replace an existing sign on the A835. However, following discussions, this is no longer considered the best solution. The proposed replacement sign would have required Gaelic to be added, meaning the design would have had to go through yet another redesign after it had already been revised twice by the Biosphere's design company. The sign already had to have the Wester Ross Biosphere logo removed because it was deemed 'too busy' by Transport Scotland. The community were very keen to have the words 'Please drive carefully' retained on the new sign. In view of this Transport Scotland proposed a seperated new sign rather that replacing one which would have required adding the Gaelic - Garbh which then made it too busy again! The original sign design show shown below.

We are now waiting for Transport Scotland to provide both ourselves and Wester Ross Biosphere with details of the next steps, including arrangements for the manufacture and eventual installation of the sign.

Transport Scotland advised during the meeting that they would issue a follow up email summarising the discussion and agreed actions. We sent a chaser email on Friday, 17th July 2026.

{Repair dating back to a lorry verying off the road in December 2023, which in turn highlighted the barrier and road were no longer stable}
The latest update can be found at the bottom of page >  https://gdcc.scot/news/a835-check-rail-corner-update-3-jul-2026