Ambitious plans to build a £500million “new town” on the outskirts of Inverness have been resurrected – and work is poised to get under way within a year.
The Press and Journal can reveal today that the developer behind proposals to build 2,500 homes at Stratton has moved to “kick start” the forgotten project.
And the 2010 scheme has been “re-jigged” so that three new supermarkets would now be built at the site, instead of the single retailer from the original plan.
The development is earmarked for almost 200 acres of land between the existing A96 Aberdeen road and the communities of Culloden and Smithton.
It would feature a new town centre, retail park, a primary school, health centre, park-and-ride facility and hotel.
Community leaders last night predicted a “big battle” over the plans – amid fears the new Inverness prison could be moved to Stratton from its controversial proposed site at Milton of Leys.
But business chiefs hailed the scheme as fresh evidence of the Highland capital’s booming economy.
A masterplan for the new town at Stratton was approved by councillors in 2010 alongside promises that it would help create 1,200 construction jobs and about 1,000 permanent posts.
Work was supposed to get under way the following year, but the plans have been gathering dust ever since because of the changing economic climate and the collapse of a crucial deal to build a new 86,000sq ft supermarket at the site.
It emerged yesterday, however, that the developer, Hazledene Inverness, has now lodged revised proposals with the local authority.
Instead of building the first phase around the giant supermarket, the new development brief proposes starting the scheme with 400 homes, a quarter of which would be “affordable”.
Those homes would be followed by seven other sections as part of the first phase of the 20-year scheme, including three smaller-scale supermarkets.
The proposed schedule of work involves construction of a further 150 affordable homes, followed by a 13,000sq ft supermarket, an 80-bed hotel restaurant and pub, another 30,000sq ft supermarket, an 18,000sq ft non-food store, a 43,000sq ft supermarket and a 150-space park-and-ride facility.
As originally envisaged, there would also be a health centre, a church, a community centre, offices and a new primary school.
Mark Shaw, chief executive of the Hazledene Group, confirmed the revised plans to the Press and Journal yesterday, saying: “We are just re-jigging things and hopefully this time next year we would hope to be on site.”
As a result of the changes, the developer is applying to the council for permission to alter the conditions set out when the masterplan was approved in 2011.
Smithton and Culloden Community Council chairman David McGrath called on the local authority to ensure that infrastructure commitments were delivered.
“The biggest worry we have got is not what they are planning to do with the development, it’s whether Highland Council has got the guts to stand up to the developer,” he said.
“The other worry we’ve got is that they might try to move the proposed prison site down to Stratton. This could be the restart of quite a big battle.”
Inverness Chamber of Commerce chief executive Stewart Nicol welcomed the revised proposals last night.
“It’s really encouraging because we’re starting to see very significant development coming together. It’s a reflection of just how buoyant the city is seen and is a very strong endorsement of our economy,” he said.