December 2025 Update - Land acquisition

POOLEWE COMMUNITY LAND ACQUISITION

Since our last update in September, we have been busy continuing our work for our funding application to Scottish Land Fund. We also held two public drop-in sessions on 14 and 16 October which were well attended and we thank everyone who took the time to attend and/or make a contribution by email. At the drop-ins we were able to share conceptual drawings showing our ideas for the land we hope to acquire.

This update will focus on summarising, and responding to, the questions and suggestions relating to the land acquisition project that we received at the drop-ins (and directly). We have not been able to respond individually to each person who participated but we have collated and summarised the information so that each topic and our responses will be available to everyone. We have arranged the information in the form of frequently-asked-questions as we feel that makes it more readable:

1. How did we get here?
   
   Almost two years ago, Wester Loch Ewe Community Council took the decision to investigate the construction of a helicopter landing pad for emergency medical evacuations. A purpose-built facility enables safer helicopter operation in a wider range of weather conditions. Four potential sites were identified which were surveyed by an aviation consultant and representatives from 39 Engineer Regiment (who may do the majority of the construction work). As a result, the list was reduced to two with the field near Bac Dubh being the clear winner. WLECC approached the landowner to obtain a piece of the field, initially hoping it might be donated, but the landowner made it clear that the area would not be donated and would not be split from the rest of the field.
   
   So WLECC started to investigate buying the necessary land. It transpired that the landowner was only willing to sell a much larger area of land as a single lot. As this included an area designated for housing in Highland Council’s Local Development Plan, it presented an opportunity to start to address the problem of a lack of affordable housing in our community. The result was that WLECC decided to collaborate with Wester Loch Ewe Trust to acquire the land with a view to working with a housing trust to build affordable houses, and taking forward the helipad and other community benefit schemes.
   
   The most suitable funder for the land purchase was identified as Scottish Land Fund and a Stage 1 submission was made within a very tight deadline. The application was well received and complimented on its alignment with the Local Place Plan and Local Development Plan, and WLET were awarded an initial grant to do the conceptual design, planning and feasibility work required for the SLF Stage 2 application which will provide the majority of the funds to acquire the land.
   
   

2. What happens next?
   
   The next milestone is the submission of our SLF Stage 2 application and we are working with Communities Housing Trust, surveyors and architects to complete the necessary business planning and feasibility work. We don’t have a timescale for the Stage 2 submission and award and we are working to have the work complete by the end of this year. We await confirmation of the timetable for the next round of funding and we expect it will be well into 2026. It will be late 2026 or early 2027 before we are likely to complete the purchase, if we are successful. At this stage we are working towards acquiring the land, we are not in a position to schedule the subsequent projects for building the houses etc. When we acquire the land we expect the first project to be undertaken will be the helipad as it is funded and ready to go ahead, subject to planning permission from Highland Council.
   
   

3. How will you fund the purchase of the land?
   
   As mentioned above, we are planning to get the majority of the funds from Scottish Land Fund. In addition we have made a successful bid to Highland Council to get funds from their Community Regeneration Fund, and have been awarded £40k. We will also receive funding from the HELP Appeal charity who will fund the construction of the helipad and will contribute towards the purchase of the land. These three sources will, if we are successful with SLF, cover the purchase cost completely, including the small gap between our valuation of the land and the seller’s asking price, and legal and other costs. Our SLF Stage 2 submission will contain final details of costs and funding.
   
   

4. What do the feedback forms from the drop-ins say about the projects?
   
   

   1. Affordable Housing Proposal

In Favour	Against	Undecided	Agree Housing Mix	Comments
52*	0	1	6	Housing for young people & families Much needed A good mix More 1 & 2 bed flats More accessible flats for elderly More affordable housing is required * Includes 44 signatures on petition objecting to access route but supporting housing

Our comments:
We are very encouraged by the overwhelming support for the housing project.

2. Proposed access to housing site via Clifton Place
   
   

Our comments:
The feedback received clearly indicated that residents in the area adjacent to the housing site (Clifton, Sydney’s Way and Clifton Place) object to the traffic that would be generated during construction and in the longer term. The feasibility work currently in progress has shown that the proposed access route (via Clifton Place) shown at the drop-ins is ruled out on cost grounds. The alternative route via the field out to the Inverasdale road (B8057) is also an expensive option and would severely impact the grazing land we have stated we will preserve in our funding applications. The best option at present appears to be to create an access through the site of the commercial units in the former builder’s yard. This route would have less impact on residents. To further reduce that impact, a number of measures would be put in place (with input from local residents), and indeed would be required by the planning conditions set by Highland Council.

3. Campervan pitches

Our comments: See question 9 below.

4. Path in community amenity land

Our comments:
The path shown on the conceptual drawings was simply a preliminary indication of what might be possible. The actual route will be worked out taking account of the terrain and other factors such as cost. It is our intention that the path will be signposted so that walkers will see there is another track along the shore which takes you back to the village, creating a circular route of around one mile. Our plans have no impact on the existing football pitch or play park.

5. Suggestions for use of reclaimed community land

• Allotments (3x)

• Gardening for well-being

• Fenced-off dog walking area (2x)

• District heating system in boggy area

• Community polytunnels

• Community solar panels

• Green gym

• Skate park

Our comments:
We will evaluate these suggestions once the land has been acquired. It will be important to develop ideas that generate income, are self-sustaining, and don’t displace business from other local organisations. For the purposes of our funding bid, we did not anticipate that there will be vehicular access to the area (other than for farm machinery), or services such as power, water and sewage.

5. Are you going to hold more drop-ins?
   
   We don’t have funding for any more drop-ins at present. We intend to hold a public meeting to present the latest proposals and get more feedback before we submit our Stage 2 application. As we don’t have a timetable for our submission yet, we can only say that will be sometime in 2026.
   
   

6. What is the “Reclaimed Amenity Land” shown on the proposal?
   
   It’s an area of formerly cultivated land which has been allowed to deteriorate. It can be recovered with comparatively little effort to bring it back into productive use so that it can be used for grazing, cultivation, or for other community purposes.
   
   

7. Are there any areas of crofting land in the project?
   
   No, there is no croft land involved, and none will become croft land.
   
   

8. How will the area of grazing/arable land beside the Inverasdale road be used?
   
   One of our stated aims in our funding applications was to ensure the preservation of the field for grazing or arable purposes as there was a concern that it might be given over to house building which would not necessarily benefit the community, and there is little agricultural land available outwith the crofts. Our intention is to put the tenancy of the land up for auction every three years and so generate some income for supporting WLET’s work. This is of course subject to any obligations we may have with regard to the existing arrangements when we take over the land.
   
   

9. Why are you proposing a campervan stopover?
   
   When WLET takes over this large area of land it is also taking on new obligations. There will be ongoing commitments for maintenance, insurance, and operating costs, and we will continue to support the Poolewe public toilets. The stopover will provide an income stream to help with these commitments and we anticipate it will help to reduce parking congestion in Poolewe while encouraging more NC500 traffic to stop and use our local facilities. We are committed to ensuring our business proposals do not adversely impact any other local businesses so we are in touch with the Camping and Caravanning Club who operate the Inverewe campsite to ensure they are happy with our plans.
   
   

10. What services will you provide at the campervan stances?
    
    Our intention is to have water and power at each stance, with a shared waste disposal point which would also be open to the public for a fee. We will aim for the stances to have minimum impact on the surroundings so we will retain as much of the existing woodland as possible and there will be minimal or no lighting, subject to planning conditions.
    
    

11. Are you collaborating with the adjacent projects (Bac Dubh Rewilding and Loch Ewe Community Enterprise) on matters which affect them?
    
    We certainly intend to. The feedback we received from Scottish Land Fund indicated they were of the opinion that the three projects complemented each other and we would like to build on that. In the work we have done so far we haven’t identified anything that impacts the adjacent land, other than shared boundaries, but there will no doubt be other areas of mutual interest once we get into detailed planning. We are grateful for the letters of support that LECE have written on our behalf.
    
    

12. Can you change the mix of housing types shown on the plan?
    
    Yes, at this stage we are simply showing a possible mix of housing for the purposes of our funding bid. When the land is acquired and detail work on planning the houses starts, WLET is committed to working with the community to get their approval and support for the proposals and it is possible the mix will change.
    
    

13. Who will decide who gets the houses?
    
    Wester Loch Ewe Trust will be responsible for the allocation policy. The policy will be drawn up with the help and approval of the community. The actual allocation of houses to tenants/owners, and ongoing management, will probably be done by a housing trust on behalf of WLET. There may be a demand for a mixture of rented and discounted sale or other types of tenure. These details will be worked out when the detailed planning work begins. Whatever is decided will be done in collaboration with the community.
    
    

14. Can the local infrastructure handle the addition of up to ten new homes and five campervan stances?
    
    Our preliminary discussions with Scottish Water have not shown up any problems with our proposals for the houses and the campervan stances. We will be submitting formal pre-applications to Scottish Water and SSEN as we finalise our Stage 2 application.
    
    

15. Is the Poolewe Village Green included in your plans?
    
    Poolewe Village Green, including the car park and toilets areas, is being donated to the community so it is not part of our plans to purchase this land. We do not have information on when the Village Green transfer will take place.
    
    

16. How have your plans changed after the drop-ins?
    
    We have been working on feasibility studies for our projects since we were awarded our SLF Stage 1 funding, and this work, in conjunction with the valuable feedback we got from the drop-ins, has enabled us to make some changes to our funding application, though the overall plan for the housing, helipad, aire, grazing and community woodland remains the same. We have dropped plans for an access route via Clifton Place or through the field adjacent to the Inverasdale road, and will focus on the route through the industrial units as our first choice. In our funding bid we will include proposals for reducing the impact on local residents from construction activity and how we will work with the community and Highland Council Planning to achieve this.
    
    The choice of access through the industrial units introduces additional risk (and possible delay) into the project as we will need to negotiate the purchase of the industrial units and yard, and raise the necessary funding for the purchase and the demolition work. However, the road construction costs will be smaller and we will acquire the yard area which has the potential for more housing.
    
    

17. Why don’t you publish all the project documents?
    
    We have been asked for various information and we will publish what is practicable. There are already more than 100 documents relating to the project, many of these contain information that would have to be redacted, some are being regularly updated, and some have confidential data, so it would be a major effort to publish and keep updated every document while making them available to the whole community. We don’t have the resources for that. Instead we will publish what we think would be useful for the community to have so that we can get informed comments and suggestions. This document is part of that process. We expect that the SLF Stage 2 submission document will also contain much of the information that has been requested, so we will publish a version of that in time for the next public consultation.
    
    

18. How can I get information about the project?
    
    The best way is to join Wester Loch Ewe Trust (it’s free to join!) if you are not already a member. Members receive updates by email. And of course anyone can access the WLET website at www.westerlochewe.com to get information, submit comments, or ask to join. Another source of information is the minutes of Wester Loch Ewe Community Council and you can get on their mailing list by contacting the secretary on This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. There are updates published in Gairloch & District Times and information is broadcast on Wester Ross Radio. There is also information posted on the WLET and WLECC FaceBook pages. Notices about meetings are put up in Poolewe Shop, Poolewe Village Hall, and on Inverasdale School noticeboard.