Planners Give Go-ahead to Major Thurso Hotel Scheme

[Raymond Taylor]

Sorry that you don't get it .ITS NOT THE HOTEL IDEA THATS WRONG ,JUST THE SITE WHERE HE WANTED TO BUILD IT . We are just saying move it across the road and 500 yards farther WEST on to the ground he owns anyway . The view will be little changed from the Hotel and if they put in a roundabout at the junction ,access would be improved .
The closure of Dounreay and Vulcan will have an effect ,but are you saying I should wait if a plan to buy a house or sell now before the bubble bursts. The locals have been here along time and folk come here to see how local folk have impacted the Enviroment over thousands of years. Dounreay gave jobs but at a price, now we have the change our point of focus and look to a new future . If we destroy the landscape by making the same decision with the hotel as we did with Turbines maybe we should be selling return tickets on the Titanic.
We find that locals are having little or no input on decision ,you get the feeling that some folk just don't get it . Caithness has a lot to offer and so have its people ,if only they get the opportunity to bring it to the fore. Let's create jobs that will have a long term benefit ,just maybe having the New Hotel move across the road can show that Smart Thinking can benefit all . The likes of £21M New Nuclear Storage Locker in Wick is an example of the Highland Council giving land away free to get the building in Wick rather than Thurso. I was told that "Thurso comes way down the list on any business dealing with any bodies ,Wickers stand together and push harder whereas Thurso has more outside input which waters down everything, that's why Wick got the Commuity Centre and much more " . As for the Orkneys they have used their leverage well to get what the community needed as has Wick but we are losing out to Inverness and the likes by not getting the direction right . We have hotels laying empty in Thurso ,some due to age ,some to lack of investment . Yes it's cheaper to build new ,but what do we do with the old ones . There's a group of us putting together a Caithness Comunity Trust that could take over such properties for community use . If we don't stand up and speak about things that will impact us all and except that there will be a difference in opinion on some things and that new ideas or slight changes would make more sense in the long term, well we all lose.
Caithness .Org has been a great sounding board on the new hotel and Bill should be commended on how it is run, but the next step shows that good things can happen if you take into account of what impact we can have on others and your community . I thing the smart thing for ST is to move it and that way have the full backing of both groups ,The ones that want a New Hotel and the ones that want to preserve the green belt space. I would be happy to back the move and give the new site my full support . We don't move forward by dismissing the past or destroying the Enviroment the community and visitors alike have come to appreciate, it's loss is all our loss for generations .

Tourism, Business and Leisure allocation in 2015 plan.

Starting to “SHOUT” now to get your points across, an interesting development I can’t imagine why that would be.

Before the final settled view CaSPlan went in front of Councillors last Aug 2016 the Caithness and Sutherland Proposed Local Development Plan Committee Version was presented to them in November 2015. During the public consultation process over several years prior to this I wrote numerous statements, these covered, maximising amenity, distance to town centre for the good of the town and the project, travel distances and remoteness. During the process as I said the public also had their say and the Highland Council Planning officials correlated all the information for and against and made a democratic judgement explained in exerts below from that plan.

This Nov 2015 proposed plan went to Committee and was approved. This was 10 months before they decided last August 2016 to torpedo their own plan? Also doing so they created another round of public consultation and the need for the plan to have a major modification.

My point being, I argued my points regarding the merits of a site within easy access of the towns centre and won the democratic argument with the majority of the respondents also behind it. The Councillors voted against this after all the work that had been done and closed the door after the horse had bolted last August. The people now know this and are reacting.

The site you “bang on about” is appropriate for a Travel Lodge or Premier Inn for sure, but a mile from the town centre, a 1000 yards more of a round trip for all the guest and staff than our proposed location, give me break. Who in their right mind would build a project of this quality that far away from town. Pennyland House is right on the edge of comfort for guests if not just outside.

I remember Bill Ariff building the Weigh Inn Motel many years ago. This was an American concept he liked. Why did he not build a hotel, I’ll tell you why, because then it was in the middle of nowhere. You build a top quality hotel in the middle of nowhere and see how you get on. Taxis, for guests, busses for staff etc. What we are trying to achieve is as good for the regeneration of the town as it is for the project and that identified our site way back in 2015.

Caithness and Sutherland Proposed Local Development Plan Committee Version 2015

Strategy and Policies 4 Caithness and Sutherland are the two most northerly parts of Highland and the British mainland and they are characterised by a unique landscape and coastal setting. Their location presents many challenges but make them well placed to take advantage of a number of opportunities. Tourism, aquaculture, renewable energy and the service industry play a strong role in the local job market.

103 The tourism industry is also regarded as being underdeveloped in Caithness and having potential to create new job opportunities. Major progress has been made in recent years in some areas such as the redevelopment at John O' Groats and successful promotion of the North Coast 500. These are helping to boost the national and international reputation of north Highland. Work on building a better quality visitor experience remains a top priority. The Plan allocates land at Pennyland for a high quality hotel Visit Scotland's Tourism Strategy which identifies a need for more quality hotels in Caithness. The hotel would be linked to the creation of a public park which would greatly help to open the area up for the enjoyment of both residents and visitors. These proposals will provide more facilities for visitors which will ultimately help to retain visitors in the area for longer .

104 The western expansion of the town continues to be a central component of the long term plan for Thurso. Since the last local plan was adopted in 2002 most of the other allocated sites have been built out. With the recently designated Scrabster Renewable Energy Enterprise Area and upgrades to the harbour facilities it continues to be the logical direction of growth for the town. It is anticipated therefore that attention will now focus on the housing and mixed use allocations at Pennyland, High Ormlie.

105 The Plan incorporates some of the key outputs of the ‘Charrette’ (an interactive design workshop) which was held in Wick over the course of a week in February 2013. Urban designers, architects, planners and the public came together to explore ideas and aspirations for Wick’s future. This fed into Masterplan and Charrette Report which brought together all the ideas and issues which were raised.

A masterplanned approach is needed to set out a strategy for the long term western expansion of the town. Land is identified for a range of uses including housing, business, leisure, petrol station, public park and openspace together with important transport and connection improvements. Establiish a green network from the coastline at Victoria Walk, through Pennyland and the Ormlie moors and stretching out to a new community woodland north of the golf course.

Business TS14: LAND WEST OF CARAVAN PARK Use: Business (Tourism, Leisure) Area (ha): 3 Developer Requirements: Developer to prepare masterplan/development brief for sites at Thurso West to be agreed with the Council who may adopt this as Supplementary Guidance. This should address: siting and design of hotel and public park area; landscaping; access from A9; enhanced active travel connections and coastal walk improvements; high quality, low level design is essential given its prominent location; sensitive siting and design required due to proximity of B-Listed Building; stone dykes to be protected and enhanced; protected

[Michael Dennis]

With the greatest respect to those who fought and those who were lost in the war, this is a totally ridiculous idea and embodies everything we do not need.

This site, if for sale, should be used for the purposes of farmland or development. If people want to honour its past, then it should be done by means of a simple plaque or information at a library or heritage centre.

There is absolutely no way that public money should be wasted on anything like this. The archive in Wick serves a valuable purpose, if it was not created in Wick then it would have had to be created somewhere else to house all of the Dounreay documents and all other documents it holds.

There are more than sufficient memorials to honour those who have fought and been lost in conflict, during the period of history concerned and we certainly should not be continuing to create more monuments to this in the future. For those of us under the age of 50, this has a lot less meaning to our future than generations of the past and we can think of a lot better, forward thinking ways to spend this kind of money on, which support our communities and offer opportunities into the future.

I am sorry if that offends but it is fact.