Almost 600 people have signed a petition calling for work to stop on a new school that is deemed so big it will obliterate views of the UK’s tallest mountain Ben Nevis.
The online protest urges Highland Council to “stop building a monstrous metal shed in front of old people’s houses”.
They are objecting to the new £7million Gaelic Medium Primary School that is currently under construction on Ardgour Road at Caol, near Fort William.
Local people claimed they were unaware that the single-storey main building was going to be around 20ft high and that the level of the ground on which it stands would be raised by 6-8ft to reduce the risk of flooding.
And elderly people were horrified to discover that their views of Ben Nevis were to be blocked by the sports hall, which will be almost 40ft high.
The steel structure has already been erected and work is moving on rapidly.
Meanwhile, the community is angry that no one appears to be taking any notice of their views and at the way elderly residents are being treated.
The petition, lodged by Lorna McCalman, whose elderly mother lives in Caol, states: “Highland Council has granted itself planning permission to erect a gym hall for a new Gaelic school on moorland in front of Ben Nevis.
“The building dwarfs everything for miles around and particularly affects a row of old folks houses. They won’t see much sunlight from November until March.
“The council claims that notification was sent out to all neighbours within 20m (65ft) of the new building, but none of the most affected homes received any letter. Any letters I’ve subsequently seen, only show the building in plan view, not height.
“Many residents in this small Highland village are up in arms because no one realised what this building would look like and the devastating impact it would have on vulnerable residents.”
Caol Community Council has already objected to the work and it is holding another meeting next week at which it will ask as many individuals as possible to write letters to the council to make their views known.
Its chairman, Sandy Watson, said: “I went to all the consultation meetings and I had no idea it was going to be that size.
“No one objects to the school, it’s the height of the building and the position of the sports hall, right next to the old folks bungalow, that we object to.
“They either need to move the hall to another part of the site or make it lower.”
Following complaints about the planning process, which led to Highland Council granting itself planning permission for the school, the local authority carried out a review of its actions and found it had done nothing wrong.