CAMPAIGNERS trying to stop a housing development from going ahead on the site of the Battle of Culloden have won the right for the case to be heard in public.
Fans of television hit Outlander and the author of the books on which it is based, Diana Gabaldon, are among tens of thousands of objectors to the proposals.
The plans for 16 homes at Viewhill – included in the official designation of Culloden Battlefield – will be debated in public after a successful move by local councillors.
The original planning application was previously rejected by councillors but then approved after an appeal was successfully made to a Scottish Government planning reporter in 2014.
Housebuilder Kirkwood Homes from Aberdeenshire is now in charge of the project and has submitted detailed proposals for the Viewhill scheme. As the development is relatively small, the outcome was going to be decided under Highland Council’s delegated powers which allow such determinations to be made in private by council officers.
Local councillors Carolyn Caddick, Ken Gowans and Andrew Jarvie challenged the council over that decision and the application will now be decided in an open forum by the South Planning Committee next month. More than 35,000 objections to the plans have poured in from across the world, and there have been demonstrations at the site. It is part of the inventoried battlefield site but previously had farm buildings located on it, just a few hundred yards from the Culloden Battlefield conservation area.
George Kempik, founder of the Group to Stop Development at Culloden, said: “This is the right thing to do. The public have a right to have a say and hear a public debate on these proposals.
“Hopefully the new developers will realise the strength of opposition to this housing scheme, which is on a war grave. We continue to be totally opposed to this development, which sits just 400 metres from the Culloden Battlefield enclosure and is where the last pitched battle on British soil took place.”
Gowans added: “A majority of the four ward councillors felt it was appropriate for these applications to be given a full hearing at the South Planning Applications Committee.
“Given the sensitivity of the application, in terms of its location, we felt it only right that it should be determined by the committee and heard in public rather than behind closed doors.”
Jarvie said: “I think it’s important that what we’ve managed to bring into the committee is the actual design of the houses. Every single little detail needs to be discussed openly in public and the public needs to have their views heard on it.”
Kirkwood Homes is maintaining a no-comment policy, but previous written arguments to the council in favour of the development said it would account for only six acres of the farm, while 184 acres would remain farmland.
There are also homes closer to Culloden Battlefield and previous buildings on the site were “considerably higher than the houses proposed development, which will be one and a half storeys high – less than half the height of the farm buildings”.
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