Aberdeenshire Council has organised a meeting to discuss the future of fire-ravaged land in Macduff where a three-star hotel once stood.
The land – on Shore Street – has been vacant since the Highland Haven Hotel was demolished at Aberdeenshire Council’s expense earlier this month.
The fire had torn through the building shortly after midnight on October 19 and, as well as causing it to become structurally unsafe, forced the authority to close the main road through the coastal town to traffic.
Since then, local councillor Hamish Partridge has been calling on the council to ensure the site is not left to become an eye-sore to the people of Macduff.
He said last night: “I’m looking to sit down with various parties to find out where we go from here, to find a use for the site and how we can develop it. It cannot be left as another gap site.
“One of the suggestions I have put forward is that they explore – if the owner of the land is not going to develop this site – ways to take the site on.
“My own view is that we open this up to the public a little bit to get suggestions for what to do with it – some kind of consultation process. At the end of the day, it’s their town.
“It has to be a frontage of some sort. Personally, I would just like to see it being used.”
Privately owned, it had been revealed that its owner’s insurance would not have covered the costs of the demolition work, forcing the authority to foot the bill.
The Press and Journal has been unable to contact the owner of the hotel, but a spokeswoman for Aberdeenshire Council confirmed: “A meeting will take place in early January with local representatives to discuss the future of the site of the former Highland Haven Hotel.”
At a meeting of the full council last month, the authority’s infrastructure boss, Stephen Archer, told councillors that there were difficulties in making progress when the building was not in the ownership of the council and also warned about the financial challenges associated with taking on such buildings.