Plans to treble the size of Ullapool’s harbour have emerged – sparking fears the village’s reputation as the jewel in the crown of a north tourism trail could be destroyed.
The port is seen as a highlight of the evolving North Coast 500 route, which was last week named as the best driving route in the UK.
But last night, as it emerged a little-publicised council planning blueprint contains proposals that could more than treble the size of the existing harbour, local residents said they feared any such development would put visitors off.
One prominent businesswoman warned that a vast slab of concrete could “rip the heart out of the village”.
She fears the village’s views of Loch Broom and its surrounding mountains could be blacked out by an expanded harbour running eastwards, the entire 200-yard length of the main shoreside street.
Stunned local residents – most of whom were unaware of a council consultation event on the proposals last week – were anxious to learn more about the planners’ vision for the future of the historic fishing port.
There was mixed reaction to the news last night, although there was a consensus that any such expansion must be “sensitive” to a tourism-dependent community.
Some locals fear lifeline visitors will go elsewhere if the tranquility of the popular Wester Ross village is industrialised to such an extent.
But harbour and tourism chiefs attempted to reassure worried residents that the full-blown option presented by Inverness-based planners would never materialise.
John Lavelle, chairman of newly founded tourism body Welcome Ullapool, said: “Anything that’s going to encourage more tourists to Ullapool is obviously a good thing. At the same time, it’s got to be carefully done.
“I guess you plan big and get something, maybe of a smaller scale.”
However, local businesswoman Jenny Scobie, who did attend last week’s council-hosted event, is not convinced.
She insisted she is not opposed to development but fears the proposal in Highland Council’s under-publicised planning blueprint The West Highlands and Islands Local Development Plan would seriously threaten tourism, including its starring role in the NC500 promotion of a 516-mile scenic route around the north coast of Scotland.
Mrs Scobie said: “This proposal would rip out the heart and soul of the village. To decimate the scenic outlook from Ullapool would have devastating consequences for local businesses.
“A similar proposal was firmly rejected six years ago but is now back on the table in the form of a new local plan which, if passed, would allow the proposers a strong foot in the door.”
One local theory, that such a sizeable harbour could accommodate cruise liners, was rejected last night by harbour master and Ullapool Harbour Trust chief executive Kevin Peach who said the port is simply is not deep enough.
“We have no definite plans,” he said, “but we’re not going to do anything to the detriment of the village. This is an opportunity to highlight an area that we may develop.
“It’s a trust port. The harbour belongs to the community. If the community decide they don’t want anything, there won’t be anything.”
Ullapool resident Rob Hicks, who runs the Loopallu music festival and is co-owner of the lochside Arch Inn, said: “The village is lacking a marina. We’re losing business to other places. A development like this would be good, but it’s got to be
sympathetic to a very fragile small village.”
No-one could be contacted in the council’s planning department yesterday.
Highland councillor George Farlow, who has lived in Ullapool for 20 years, said: “I think it would be a great development if done sensitively.”
He added that it would be open to public consultation including publicly elected members of the harbour trust.