A questionmark was hanging over the future of Scotland’s oldest ski resort last night after it emerged it may not open for winter.

The operator of Glencoe Mountain has failed to sell the White Corries centre or attract new investors after putting it on the market in March. Company chairman David Campbell said yesterday that unless a volunteer board of ski-ing enthusiasts was formed to operate the resort, it may not open this winter.

The plight of the business, 30 miles south of Fort Will-iam, prompted Mr Campbell to urge the Scottish Government to do more to help the snow sports industry.

The investment fund manager, who acquired the company in 2004 after the previous owner raised a court action to have it wound up, has written to ministers pleading for more backing, and an online petition to gauge public support has been started.

Mr Campbell said: “I feel that any assistance given to the industry is piece-meal and that politicians do not fully recognise its importance in terms of jobs and the local economy when the summer visitors have gone home.” Lib Dem MP for Skye, Ross and Lochaber Charles Kennedy said the winter closure would be a “blow to tourism across the area”.

Fergus Ewing, Lochaber SNP MSP and the government’s minister for community safety, pledged last night to meet Mr Campbell to discuss the future of the resort. He said the government acknowledged the importance of the ski centres and suggested Glencoe Mountain diversify to boost trade.

“Aonach Mor has diversified with mountain biking and CairnGorm Mountain with the funicular,” he said.

Mr Campbell said the petition, which has more than 1,100 signatures, would remain open for six weeks before being presented to Holyrood ministers.

The resort was put on the market in the hope of attracting new investment to develop the complex, but Mr Campbell said negotiations with two interested parties had failed to reach satisfactory conclusions.

Mr Campbell said: “The number of signatures led me to conclude that there would be support for the formation of a board comprising representatives of the various winter sports activities to run the resort through the coming winter months. I would rather step back and let these interested parties take over this winter’s operation until we can find a way forward.”

Support for ski-ing at Glencoe has come from two senior staff members, Angela Dingwall and Bobby Munro. A message posted by the campaigners on the resort’s website said: “The staff and ski patrol believe that running Glencoe as a club is the way forward. That way we own it together. We have a chance to make this happen now.”

Mr Kennedy said: “The closure of the resort would be a blow to tourism right across the area, but it would be especially felt in the winter. A last-minute private buyer now seems the only remaining hope.”

Highland Council leader and Lochaber councillor Dr Michael Foxley said: “Both ski resorts in Lochaber are significant to the local economy.

“My own view would be that Glencoe needs to consider diversifying and to discuss that with local organisations like the Clachaig and the Ice Factor, which might be able to make things happen.”

http://www.glencoemountain.com