The owners of a historic bothy have spoken out about the controversy surrounding the site, accusing Moray Council of “fuelling” anger over the proposed development.
John Urquhart’s family has owned the derelict Millie Bothy, located in Roseisle Forest, since 2017.
Mr Urquhart says his family has always been involved with the building, with relatives working there as fishermen in the 1950s.
He says his family always intended to “honour the history and bring it back to its former glory”.
The Urquhart family has now submitted three planning applications to Moray Council to restore the ruins – sparking controversy.
Most recently, a planning application to transform the bothy itself into a holiday home was submitted in 2022.
Mr Urquhart claimed his family has been subject to subject to some “very malicious, cruel and unfounded comment” from objectors over the past few years.
He claimed the family had “jumped through hoops to satisfy all the planning requirements” at great expense after being led to believe the application would be approved.
However, they have now been told the application is to be recommended for refusal.
He accused the Moray Council’s planning department of trying to find “any and every” reason to back up the refusal.
Temporary stop notice
His family has recently been ordered to stop landscaping works on the site, but Mr Urquhart insists the family had been given permission to carry out the work last spring.
He said a compliance officer visited the site, on the coast between Burghead and Findhorn, last spring and said they were “entitled” to landscape their own land, with work including removing the invasive hogweed.
However, following complaints among the community that work had recommenced this year – and a follow-up meeting with that same compliance officer and chief of planning – a temporary stop order was issued.
Moray Council maintain it was carried out without the “necessary planning consent”.
Mr Urquhart said: “Following relentless and vicious complaints from some people, the compliance officer changed his position when we met him and the chief planning officer for a face-to-face meeting much to our dismay and confusion, and asked us to cease any landscaping which could be classified as creating new paths behind the Millie Bothy.
“He threatened us with a stop order should we not agree to cease works. We agreed to stop any further landscaping in the areas he outlined and also followed up that assurance in writing to the development management manager some two hours after our meeting.
“Despite this, the officer issued the stop notice unbeknown to us two days later which we feel was both underhand and completely unnecessary.”
‘False and very damaging’
The developers have since lodged a formal complaint to Moray Council about the temporary stop notice.
Mr Urquhart claimed: “By issuing the stop order, Moray Council’s planning department is seeking to portray us as people who consistently break planning rules and this is both false and very damaging particularly as our planning application is soon to be before the committee.”
The local authority has said it is used as an “enforcement measure” considered when development takes place before an application is determined.
A spokeswoman said: “The use of a temporary stop order is an enforcement measure we consider when development takes place prior to an application being determined. It is regrettable that development has commenced on this site without the necessary planning consent.”
Exploratory water well
Mr Urquhart fears his family has been “publicly vilified” for breaching and ignoring planning rules.
He said that there was a similar incident in 2021 when they were given consent for an exploratory water well, but then ordered to halt last April when complaints were made.
The landowner said one councillor was “so incensed” by the enforcement letter that he wrote a blog post encouraging people to object to the application.
The Urquharts are now worried that every councillor in Moray believes they drilled the water well and carried out improvements without permission, despite having written consent.
‘We are just an ordinary family’
The family is concerned that councillors on the planning committee may be influenced by this and the recent temporary stop notice.
“There is no way we can have a fair and unbiased review of our application when it goes before the planning committee in the coming weeks,” Mr Urquhart said.
“As far as we can see it, there have been some calculated actions by the planning department to portray us in a very bad way which is why we’ve felt we cannot remain silent anymore and see our reputation is damaged.
“We are just an ordinary family trying to bring to life a long-held dream to restore our own property and it is not right we have been subjected to this unfair treatment by Moray Council’s planning department or the relentless abuse and harassment we have received, particularly on social media, by a group of uninformed and malicious objectors over a simple planning application.”
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