Thurso holiday park plan approved by councillors
A new holiday park could be built on a derelict Thurso site after councillors rejected advice to refuse planning permission.
Members of Highland Council north planning applications committee had been advised by planning officers to refuse permission for Barry Property Ltd of Thurso to create the holiday park by the River Thurso, on the site of the former Bridgend Building Supplies yard.
This followed the tabling of “significant” objections by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) and Transport Scotland, on the basis of flooding and road safety fears respectively.
SEPA identified the proposed development as being on ground at current and future risk of flooding while the transport agency said it would create additional pressures on the adjacent A9 “at a location where the existing layout does not meet current design standards, thus creating interference with the safety and free flow of the traffic on the trunk road.”
Several members of the committee, however, felt the risks were not as serious as suggested.
The general feeling among many including Councillor Jan McEwan (Wick and East Caithness) was that the road - having coped with traffic regularly going in and out of the site when it was a builders yard - would be able to cope with what she felt would be less busy tourist traffic.
Councillor Mathhew Reiss (Thurso and Northwest Caithness) said he could not recall any significant road accident anywhere near the site in the past.
In the case of flooding risk he noted how SEPA was talking about a one in 200 year event that would result in water levels rising to the bottom level of some of the pods proposed for accommodation at the site.
Also on flooding Councillor Richard Gale (East Sutherland and Edderton) pointed out how a noted 0.5 per cent chance of a major flooding event in any one year meant a 99.5 per cent chance of it not happening, which he would prefer to side with.
A motion tabled by Cllr Karl Rosie (Thurso and Northwest Caithness), backed by Cllr Reiss, stated that the wider benefits of the proposed development, including boosting the local economy by reviving a long derelict site, outweighed the objections raised.
Council officers were directed to work on drafting conditions that would be attached to the permission aimed at improving and safeguarding the environment at and around the site.
That motion was backed by 10 votes to five.