Tomdoun Hotel
How do we protect lifeline facilities in our most remote and fragile communities?
The issue came to a fore in yesterday’s planning committee decision on the Tomdoun Hotel. The committee - reluctantly - granted permission to convert it to private residential use. The hotel had been recently purchased and permission was therefore sought to convert it to residential use. The objections from the local community stemmed from the fact that it was a lifeline facility in the sense it was the only convivial public gathering place in the glen. It also provided employment and attracted visitors to the area. There had been more than one offer to purchase it for hotel use.
Also key to the argument to refuse permission is the likelihood of ‘market forces’ ever replacing the now-lost hotel. Hotels need a prime site and architectural attractiveness to thrive. This building - in the centre of the community, right by the road, of classic late Victorian style - had all that. It could not be recreated for double or triple the asking price of £225,000.
The applicable policy in the Highland-wide Local Development Plan is Policy 36: Development in the Wider Countryside. Policy 36 is fairly sensible stuff, requiring acceptable siting, design, drainage etc. Does it do anything to protect remote communities? It says this:
In considering proposals, regard will also be had to the extent to which they would help, if at all, to support communities in Fragile Areas (as defined by Highlands & Islands Enterprise) in maintaining their population and services by helping to re-populate communities and strengthen services.
The key here is “defined by Highlands & Islands Enterprise”. Click for HIE’s map. You will see on the map that few places in landward Caol & Mallaig ward are considered fragile: not upper Glengarry, not Tulloch, not Clunes nor Kinlochhourn seemingly. Thankfully Glenfinnan and Lochailort appear to be considered ‘fragile’.
Glenfinnan is a good example of the potential risk. The Glenfinnan House Hotel should well be considered the community centre that the village otherwise lacks. The Glenfinnan Community Council meets in a room behind the bar! It would make for a stunning private home if it ever went on the market - and would certainly fetch the seller more if sold as a private residence than as a hotel.
As Highlanders who value our rural landscape, we must find ways of protecting community facilities like Tomdoun Hotel - the places where our communities can meet to share the news, plan a village fete or start a fundraising drive. These are the activities that bind our communities together. Without them, our remote communities slowly turn into holiday home theme parks. The first place to start would be to take back from HIE the right to define what our fragile communities actually are.
