Black Isle crofting family win dream home go-ahead after planning battle
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A BLACK ISLE crofting family have won a four-year battle to get the go-ahead to build their dream home on their own land.
Mark and Mary MacLennan have been unable to secure a mortgage because a planning condition put in place by Highland Council was deterring lenders.
But the Scottish Government has lifted the restriction paving the way for the young couple to start building their two-storey house with a detached double garage on their croft near Culbokie.
Mrs MacLennan said she was “so delighted” her appeal to the Scottish Government was upheld.
She said: “We are so delighted. This decision follows four long years of trying to secure planning approval and there have been so many disappointments along the way."
The couple lodged a planning application to build in the countryside back in 2012.
By their very nature, approval of those applications can be challenging because the council has to strive to protect countryside land from over-development.
The couple thought their problems were behind them when planning permission was finally granted in December.
But the council attached a planning condition called a Section 75 to their self-build plot because it lay on countryside land which was not zoned for housing.
This Section 75 agreement effectively ties the house to the rest of the croft so that the house and land cannot be sold off separately.
But the MacLennans were turned down by mortgage lenders who said they could not give finance under this agreement.
The couple, who are both 29, have been living in a flat in Inverness with their six-month-old daughter Lexi while the problems were ironed out.
And with the condition lifted they are looking forward to securing a mortgage and moving back to the rural community.
“We can’t be the only people faced with this problem,” said Mrs MacLennan. “That’s four years effectively wasted. We really wanted to continue to live in the Black Isle where we were born and brought up.
"We’re so thankful to our local councillor Craig Fraser for all of his support and to MSP Dave Thompson for his advice and encouragement.”
Emily and Ian MacDonald are among the other families who are being restricted by a Section 75.
The couple are facing their third winter in a caravan at Woodside, West Park, in Strathpeffer, with their three children.
They were granted planning permission by the council in December but their building society is refusing to mortgage their long-planned two-storey detached home as long as a Section 75 agreement is attached as a planning condition.
Mrs MacDonald (29) hopes the government will overturn this decision.
She said: “I’m delighted for Mary and her family, They deserve this decision 100 per cent after what they’ve been through. We are going to go down that same route and we will appeal to the government. I’m hoping that we get the same result and we hear good news before Christmas.”
The council’s decision to impose a Section 75 agreement was overturned by a reporter appointed by Scottish Government ministers. The appeal process took less than two months.
Reporter John Martin concluded that the council’s decision to impose the Section 75 “flies in the face Scottish planning policy”.
He said: “As this (Section 75) is tantamount to an occupancy condition, it flies in the face of SPP policy which is clear that there should be no occupancy restrictions on new housing in the countryside.”
He added: “I appreciate the council’s wish to prevent the house being sold separately from the agricultural unit but, as the Crofting Commission makes clear, the right to erect a house on a croft is to serve that croft so, while the croft continues to exist the house would be tied to it in any event.”
Black Isle Scottish National Party councillor Craig Fraser said the decision was “the right one”.
He said: “I would hope that senior planners at Highland Council will now liaise more closely with the Scottish Government planning office and the Crofting Commission.
"I can understand our planning department trying to reduce unscrupulous development in the countryside but we need some common sense here. This was not an unscrupulous planning development. This was a young couple trying to come back to work a croft in Resolis, which is crying out for young families.”
