By Friday – one way or the other – the fate of a community bid for the Castle Toward estate will be sealed as an agreed extension comes to an end.

A community buy out of the Castle Toward estate will fail if Argyll and Bute council does not agree to a price reduction at a special meeting on Thursday, the group behind the proposed buyout has said.

FAULTY traffic lights on a busy Argyll trunk road have been blamed for at least one head-on collision over the past few weeks – and many other close shaves.

The narrow hump-back Aray Bridge outside Inveraray carries high volumes of traffic every day on the A83 – but malfunctioning lights on either side of the 18th century span have been creating havoc.

Work has started this week on Dunoon’s Burgh Hall to bring the 1874 Grade B-listed building into the 21st century, with high quality facilities.

ARGYLL and Bute Council is sticking to its guns over the community sale of Castle Toward, despite pressure from the First Minister.

WORK to refurbish Dunoon’s Queen’s Hall and the surrounding area as part of the council’s CHORD programme is hoped to start at the end of 2015 – if the compulsory purchase of an Argyll Street property can be completed in time.

THIS morning’s Bute and Cowal area committee meeting of Argyll and Bute Council was held in Dunoon’s Castle House, in a room more used to hearing wedding vows than political debate.

This gathering, however, saw little in the way of bliss.