Cromarty Community Development Trust welcomes transfer of land at Whitedykes Industrial Estate by Highland Council; move is part of attempts to create dedicated motorhome site for visitors to the Black Isle village
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AN Easter Ross community trust is delighted after its plans for a key camping area took a big step forward.
Last week Highland Council approved a community land transfer request submitted by the Cromarty Community Development Trust (CCDT) to create a space for motorhomes on the Whitedykes Industrial Estate.
Part of the land on the estate will be transferred to the trust for a token sum of £1, after councillors approved the deal last week.
The project seeks a sustainable solution to people camping overnight in motorhomes on amenity areas like the Links and leaving their waste in the area. It also hopes to cut down on the volume of caravans circulating the narrow streets in the heart of the village and causing congestion.
Trust director David Ross said: “This will allow us to pursue our plans to establish a site for motorhomes, with all the appropriate facilities. We already won £300,000 worth of support from the Scottish Government’s Rural Tourism Infrastructure Fund to develop the project, but we desperately needed somewhere to locate the new site, after other options were closed to us.
“We would like to thank everybody at the council for their advice and continuing support.”
He added that the site was chosen so it would be within easy walking distance of the village centre, and that the buildings will be designed to blend in with the landscape using products such as sustainable timber.
The project seeks to offer tourists better facilities, with a space for up to 12 motorhomes, showers and toilets included in the plan.
CCDT will pay all the property and legal costs associated with the asset transfer process for the Highland Council and themselves.
The site will also be designed to maximise biodiversity through retention of “wild areas”, use of deadwood to encourage amphibians and invertebrates and bat boxes to provide roost sites for bats as well as bird boxes to encourage nesting.
Set up two years ago by the local community council, the CCDT is also working towards the upgrade of the slipways to safeguard the service of the Cromarty to Nigg ferry, with operators planning to acquire a larger vessel if the appropriate work can be funded.
Mr Ross said that CCDT started a local consultation to find a new role for the 17th century Townlands Barn, which is the oldest building in Cromarty, as well as a strategy to build affordable housing in collaboration with the community council and Albyn Housing.
