Funding agreed to remove Aviemore eyesore
A bid to remove an eyesore from the southern entry to Aviemore which has stood for the best part of a decade appears this week to be a step closer to success.
Scottish Ministers are understood to have confirmed money from the Vacant and Derelict Land Fund to clear up the former BP Cairngorm filling station and prepare it for development.
The announcement was warmly received by Badenoch and Strathspey Highland Councillor Bill Lobban (SNP), who lives in the village, and described the site as the ‘biggest eyesore in the area’.
He said: "I am absolutely delighted at the prospect of seeing an improvement to an eyesore which is so detrimental both to the local community and the tourism business upon which it is so reliant.
"I hope things can now proceed apace. I have it on good authority that the underground fuel tanks have already been removed."
He and his colleagues have been informed by Highland Council’s planning and development service in Inverness that Ministerial approval has been given for funding from the VDLF to demolish the filling station and tidy up the site.
The council department has been authorised to speak to the owners of the site, Upland Developments, to determine how they wish to proceed.
Members of Highland Council’s planning, environment and development committee, meeting in Inverness in the autumn, had agreed to apply for Scottish Government funding to pay for the work.
It is expected to cost around £50,000 to demolish the garage and former car repair workshop, but it was thought that that cost could rise to £150,000 if the underground fuel tanks were still on site.
The land occupied by the former filling station has been an eyesore since the business closed more than eight years ago.
MacRae and Dick, who operated a car repair centre next to the garage, had tried to acquire the site, but were outbid by housing developer Inverburn Ltd.
They were 50 per cent owned by Inverness Holdings Ltd, which belonged to city businessman David Sutherland and his family. Their plans for 24 flats never materialised, and the site was later acquired by Aviemore-based developer David Cameron.
Several years ago he gained planning consent from the Cairngorms National Park’s planning committee for a hotel, but no progress has been made on site.