A Highland community is moving ahead with plans to buy its local pubs and hotels if and when the current owners decide to sell up.
And the first inn it is applying for the right to buy – Glenuig Inn at Glenuig, near Arisaig – is now on the market with an asking price of £995,000.
Earlier this year, people living in the Arisaig area of Lochaber set up PH38 Development Company with the aim of ensuring the hostelries in the area welcome local people and contribute to the local economy.
George Clark, of Roshven, one of the directors of the new company, which is named after their postcode, said yesterday they have been given an update on progress with their application to Scottish ministers, under community right to buy legislation.
He said: “The paperwork has been sent in to the Scottish Government and we have had feedback asking for some points to be clarified, so we are in the process of doing this.
“It is still ongoing. Nothing has stopped it yet.
“And we have already collected the signatures of 10% of the people living in this postcode in support of a community buyout.”
Mr Clark added that Steve Macfarlane, the current owner of the Glenuig Inn, attended the meeting, but “left in rather a hurry”.
He said: “I don’t think he thought we were organised enough to be able to go ahead with a buyout and was shocked to discover we were.
“He could also see that we had a lot of support and I think it reached a point where he realised we were serious about it.”
Mr Macfarlane previously claimed to be the victim of a vendetta, saying he had suffered assaults, racial abuse, vandalism and abuse on the internet since he bought the premises in December 2007.
But Mr Clark insisted there was nothing personal about locals’ attempts to take over the inn.
He said: “We see Glenuig Inn as a test. We want to set it up to see how far we can go with running it at a profit, which would go back into local projects.
“Then, if other things came up in the area that we thought would benefit the community, we would go after them too.”
The inn is now listed for sale by Colliers International, of London, as an “outstandingly beautiful and remote country inn with sea outlook”.
Mr Macfarlane refused to comment on the proposed community buyout.