An application by Highland Council to erect a £3m block flats with a CAB office on the ground floor in the centre of Nairn has met with strong opposition from local residents.
The 12 home plan, which is to be determined at a meeting of the south planning applications committee on Tuesday, comes with a recommendation by planners to grant permission.
The building is three storeys high with a pitched roof, setting it well above its largely Victorian surroundings.
And the site is also in the existing library car park in the town centre, leading objectors to describe the proposals as ‘wrong building, wrong place.’
Mandy Lawson of Nairn River community council said no community councils or groups were consulted at pre-planning stage.
She added: “We are completely in favour of more social housing for Nairn and new accommodation for our valued CAB but are aware of many other options which would make use of existing buildings in the town and deliver better value for Highland Council and Nairn.
“This new build does not fit with surrounding Victorian architecture, and would make several key aims of Nairn’s Town Centre Plan agreed in 2015 with the community, impossible to deliver.”
Ms Lawson said the community had also been dismayed to see that the council has already published more than 160 tender documents for this development on the Scottish Public Procurement portal.
She said: “To procure contracts before a development application has gone before the planning committee puts undue pressure on planning members to consent the application.”
A Highland Council spokeswoman said: “We are not in any way pre-empting what the committee may decide but it is normal process for us to do this so should permission be granted we are ready to move forward.”
Alastair Noble of Nairn Improvement Community Enterprise (Nice) said there were alternative solutions for siting the CAB.
“We have the new police station and we think it would make an ideal new office site for CAB.
“Early discussions have confirmed that Police Scotland will make it available.
“CAB could be happily housed in much improved offices by Christmas.
“We have a compact town centre with many cultural and heritage assets. It would be mad to put that at risk.”