Developers have described a council decision to snub their plans to extend a prominent Inverness restaurant as “perverse” – and may now scrap the proposal.
Highland councillors earlier this week rejected ambitious plans to stretch the Filling Station diner in several directions, predominantly within the city’s central Falcon Square.
They claimed the design would conflict with the sanctity of the conservation area.
Scoop Asset Management, which bought the Eastgate shopping complex last summer in a £116million deal, hopes to include an extension of the restaurant as part of a major revamp that would introduce four other new eateries looking onto the square.
The Eastgate Unit Trust had applied to extend the property on to the gable elevation of the adjacent Falconer Building.
The proposals were part of a package that could eventually involve the Laura Ashley premises becoming a restaurant and the centre boasting a rooftop bar and dining area.
Councillors were directed to approve all the plans but concluded that the vision for the C-listed Filling Station in Academy Street “failed to protect and enhance” the building’s “rich and diverse cultural and natural heritage.”
They, however, approved the proposals for four new restaurant units to face the square.
Scoop Asset Management yesterday (WED) issued a statement saying it was “both surprised and dismayed that the application was refused”.
It said it had consulted council officers over the past six months, adapted its designs as requested by planning and conservation officers, and was confident the amendments amounted to an “attractive and commercially viable proposal which would turn the currently unattractive facade facing Falcon Square into a lively, glazed elevation”.
Pointing out that the redesign had drawn no complaints, it added: “It seems a perverse decision and we will now have to reassess economic viability before deciding whether to appeal the decision, progress a fresh application or discard our proposals in this regard.”
The wider multimillion-pound Eastgate redevelopment could in future pave the way for extended opening hours at the shopping centre.
