A HEALTH and social care hub on Scotland’s popular NC500 route funded by the country’s richest man has received planning permission despite concerns over the design.
The £10.5 million new health and social care hub will be built at Tongue in Sutherland.
Anders Holch Povlsen’s (below) company Wildland Ltd – which owns estates in the area – is to fund the building of a care home and doctor’s surgery and then subsequently lease it back to NHS Highland and Highland Council.
READ MORE: Scottish university beats Oxbridge to become best ranked in UK
Fashion tycoon Povlsen, who owns a dozen estates, is also Scotland’s largest private landowner.
The new health hub will replace two small residential NHS Highland care homes – Sinclair Court at Melvich and Caladh Sona at Talmine.
It will also include a “state-of-the-art” residential care facility and GP surgery.
The Scottish Sun now reports that members of Highland Council’s North Planning Applications Committee unanimously gave the green light to the development.
Granting the application meant putting aside a strong objection from Highland Council’s Historic Environment Team (HET) who said the new structure would adversely impact the A-listed church and nearby Tongue House Garden.
Highland Council is building the hub in a public-private partnership with NHS Highland and conservations and tourism organisation Wildland Ltd.
NHS Highland said it will be the “occupier, operator and responsible party” for the management and delivery of all the services provided from the new hub.
The objection from HET read said the hub’s design and siting was “over-scaled, visually dominant and incongruous”.
“The prominence is further emphasised by the excessive length and bulk of the proposed building, 190m long and two storeys plus high”, the objection said.
“HET feels the visual impact is still of one long industrial/commercial scaled block snaking across the landscape with repetitive upper façade treatment and overly solid base.
“In comparison the overall length of the church is 20m. The form and scale of the building is utterly incongruous to the Tongue community area.”
READ MORE: Labour majority at risk as support drifts back to SNP, poll finds
However, the development has been approved by a number of councillors with planers adding: “The chosen scale and massing of the new facility is considered acceptable, with the chosen layout helping to provide distinction within the design, breaking up the overall scale whilst ensuring an effective and smooth operation of the new facility when in use.”
Councillor Marianne Hutchison of the SNP said: “The new hub is vitally important to sustaining services in the north and west.
“The design team has worked carefully and creatively to increase the capacity and resilience of this remote and rural area.”
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel