Residents of a remote community will no longer have to drive 20 miles over a lonely mountain pass to get petrol from Saturday, when local MP Charles Kennedy will officially re-open the Applecross filling station.
After a year of increasingly intermittent supplies, the filling station will once again be a reliable source of fuel for the 300 inhabitants of the peninsula and its many visitors. The filling station, which opened in 1995, was legally owned by the local community council until recently, and it was run by the owner of the shop and post office which sits opposite.
But in 2007 a local community company was formed to take over ownership.
The company has raised funds by organising a sponsored walk over the 2053ft-high Bealach na Ba.
Almost £5000 was raised and the money was used to pay for immediate repairs required to bring the filling station up to a legal standard.
The company has now raised enough to buy in its first tank of fuel, with funds to spare for a healthy cash flow and to allow for increases in the price of fuel.
The board is confident it has put a together "a robust business plan" that shows the filling station can be viable in the long term.
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