A delay of “12 weeks or more” to a ground-breaking Lochaber STEM Science and Industry Centre may have been averted, after a community council agreed to withdraw objections to plans.
Developers West Highland College UHI asked Kilmallie Community Council to reconsider objections to the STEM centre saying on the whole they were of a more strategic level, and claiming every delay “costs money we just don’t have”.
Even if planners give the project at Blar Mhor to the north of Fort William permission, it will still not be opened until January 2021 at the earliest, a delay of almost six months – potentially missing students for part of the 2020/2021 session.
If the objections from the community council remain in place, a further 12 weeks could be lost to the project.
In January, Kilmallie Community Council wrote to Highland Council planners to raise concerns about environmental issues at the site of the STEM building on the Blar Mhor.
While not objecting to the STEM building itself, it stated: “However we feel the need to object [to the wider development] at this time because of the lack of an integrated plan for the rest of the Blar site owned by Highland Council.
“Considering each proposed development individually will miss the one-off opportunity to maximise the benefits of separate projects on the site through coordinated developments.
“We would like to see much greater attention placed on connected civic space, complementary aesthetics, development of active travel networks and minimising the overall carbon footprint.”
A meeting of community councillors this week were told objections had the potential to hold back the project for “more than 12 weeks”.
West Highland UHI chairman, John Hutchison, who was in attendance, said: “Every day we delay the progress of the centre, it costs money we do not have.”
West Highland college principal Lydia Rohmer added: “We appreciate the concerns that you have and we can see that they are not all objections to our project.
“The delay that objections from the community council could delay the project by many months.”
Ms Rohmer explained that the delay could be very costly when it comes to meeting the demands, and income, of the student’s academic year, and the revenue required from the centre to make the whole project work.
At the end of the meeting, community councillors decided to raise its ongoing concerns about the Blar Mhor site with the chief executive of Highland Council, and said it would withdraw its objection to the STEM centre, but not the wider concerns for a masterplan.