Progress being made on Fort revamp – council

legal agreement reached over waterfront development plan

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Highland Council bosses say “substantial” progress is being made on Fort William’s £80million waterfront development despite legal agreements taking longer than hoped for.

Delays in concluding missives have been due to the council wanting future control over the project while developers are seeking a “commercially acceptable” agreement. But a spokesman said yesterday: “We now appear to have reached agreement to the satisfaction of both parties.”

They have been locked in negotiations over the Loch Linnhe waterfront’s retail, housing, leisure and offices development, with the four-member Fort William Waterfront Ltd consortium named as the council’s preferred bidder. However, the project continues to be mired in controversy, particularly over claims of a lack of public consultation and transparency and the assignment of assets.

But the spokesman said: “Despite negative press reports to the contrary, no public assets will be controlled directly or indirectly by the developer until suspensive conditions have been purified.”

Conditions include public consultation and agreement on design, completion of reports and investigations demanded by planners and Holyrood’s approval for re-aligning the A82 bypass.

They also call for public consultation and approval of a planning application and agreement on the development of offices, library and public open space.

The spokesman said it was hoped missives would be concluded shortly, subject to agreement being reached within an approved time scale “to protect the interests of the council and wider Fort William community”.

The moves follow a meeting of councillors and chief executive Alistair Dodds with Tulloch Ltd boss David Sutherland, who reaffirmed the consortium’s commitment to the project.

Allan Maguire, the council’s head of housing development and estates, said the consortium has agreed to lodge a planning application for the whole seven-hectare site and at the same time, a detailed application for phase one, which will include offices, library and public open space.

The consortium is also setting up a website, which will include information about the development and timescales, providing a public forum for feedback.

However, the latest information has failed to allay the concerns of local businessman Stewart Maclean, a major critic of the project.

“From documents made available to the public the list of suspensive conditions to be included in the missives have even, over the last two months, been reduced from 10 to six. Critical points such as securing a lease or sale to a supermarket and the assignment of the leases of Tweeddale and Lochaber House are now not apparently being included.”

Mr Maclean claims Fort William Waterfront Ltd, which has a paid-up share capital of £1,332, had secured a land bank for hundreds of houses and a supermarket which it would be able to develop in its own time at a price fixed in 2006 and which it would pay for, possibly in the next five to 10 years.

He added: “‘It is not too late for this to be stopped if the three party affiliated councillors join the four Independent councillors from Lochaber wards in their call for public consultation and a design statement before the missives are signed.”