YOUR VIEWS: We’ll never build our way out of housing problem
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Mark Tate, of the Cairngorm Business Partnership, is conducting his usual defence of Short Term Lets and campaigning against retrospective planning consent for existing STL businesses.
He ignores a few facts. He is well aware that plenty of businesses are struggling to get staff because there is nowhere for the staff to live affordably. That is steadily strangling the wider economy in favour of creating the Badenoch and Strathspey holiday camp.
Secondly, nobody has the right to do what they want with a residential house.
Short term letting a whole residential house is not automatically allowed, a point which was established by the Court of Session in January 2020.
So for the last three years it is only Highland Council’s failure to enforce the law that has allowed the ongoing loss of housing stock to become a crisis.
The current proposals are merely trying to enforce legal decisions that apply to everybody.
The insult to common sense is that Mr Tate and the Cairngorms National Park Authority make great noise about four houses sponsored by HIE and another 30 properties to be made available in the ‘coming years’ whenever that is.
The fact is that CNPA have set a target of no more than 15 per cent of housing stock being STL, second homes or vacant by 2040. Despite its faults the CNPA policy represents a democratic decision but Badenoch and Strathspey are currently running at 21.1 per cent rather than 15 per cent.
Simple arithmetic shows that if we try and build our way out of this problem we would need a total housing stock of around 11,500 houses by 2040.
The total housing stock was 8136 in 2021. So we would need to build 180 houses every year, which shows Mr Tate’s contribution of 34 properties is nothing more than a gimmick.
In fact, 180 houses a year is roughly double what has been achieved over the life of the CNPA.
In short, building our way out of the problem is impossible. There has to be a combined effort of retrospective planning on existing STLs, controls on use of new builds and increasing taxation on second homes.
Get real, Mr Tate.
Martin Johnson
Boat of Garten.
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Halcyon days of Grantown Palace
Reading the recent articles in the Strathy about the future of the former Grandview Care Home on Grantown’s High Street reminds me that many older Grantonians will have their bitter-sweet memories of its first life as The Palace Hotel.
Some will remember Mr Hastlow, the owner, ran a first class establishment providing visitors with good accommodation and excellent food.
My late father, Henry, was a porter there and he drove the hotel bus, picking up the guests at the railway station.
He helped to keep the gardens immaculate, so that the guests could enjoy afternoon tea which were provided by Bella Logie.
Sadly, my father passed away in the Palace Hotel when it was latterly the care home.
The Palace Hotel bar had an abundance of local characters, story-tellers and worthies where ‘Rash’ would provide refreshment, and bet on the horse racing.
Alex Grassick, my uncle from Gaich Farm, could captivate an audience and Bobby MacLeod, the Provost of Tobermory who led the famous Scottish Dance Band, enjoyed the sessions at the farm, where a drop of liquid gold would help to lubricate the fingers before playing.
On Games Day, Alex Grassick and Willie Logie were two stalwarts to be found at the Palace Bar and a few tunes on the mouth organ, with drumsticks rapping out a rhythm on a table, plus the telling of a few stories, was the highlight of the night for so many visitors.
Alex told of the commercial traveller who went to see Mrs Dunn, at the corner shop.
She said she had to take on help as her son Neily had gone to London and she’s not heard a word from him.
The traveller, heading to London, said he see Neily for her, if she had his address.
She only knew it was WC2 somewhere.
In London, the traveller needed the loo in his hotel and there was one marked WC2.
He got on his knees and shouted under a cubicle door: “Are you Neily Dunn?”
“Yes, but there’s no paper,” came the reply.
“Well, that’s no excuse for not writing home to your mother,” the traveller told him.
If Neily Dunn brought a smile to your face, Alex Grassick would have been a very happy man.
Leonard Grassick
Coppice Court
Grantown.
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Join in to raise profile of climate emergency in the Highlands
We write with our concerns about the latest IPCC report, which boils down to one message – act now, or it will be too late.
It comes with the UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, calling for ‘climate action on all fronts: everything, everywhere, all at once’.
This may all sound terrifying, but there is hope, we know what to do and how to do it – it’s not rocket science.
We now feel it would be a step in the right direction to bring groups, organisations and individuals together to help address the situation.
The up and coming Earth Day on April 22 would be a perfect opportunity to forge alliances and relationships between local groups and individuals who are concerned about the dire state of our planet.
Earth Day is an annual event that celebrates and promotes environmental awareness and the need to protect our natural resources for future generations, which would seem to be a perfect way of highlighting this in Inverness (https://www.earthday.org)
For this reason we hope that with the help of other local groups we can come together to show all our support in a global event.
The event would help to amplify all our voices and get our message across through creativity, using all our collective ideas for awareness-raising, fun and campaigning.
Going on the premise whoever and wherever you are, you can take action. Yes, even in Inverness.
Everyone interested will be welcome. We are thinking of a multi-group march and rally celebrating Earth Day, possibly gathering at 1pm at Inverness Townhouse, High Street/Castle Street and slowly marching to Falcon Square with placards, flags, banners, skeletons – or dress up as a creature or a plant, wear something bright, come along and meet like-minded people.
Once at Falcon Square we will have a rally with speeches on local and global biodiversity issues. If you are interested or know of someone who would like to speak, please let us know.
Then with a fun but poignant finish to the rally with a flash mob style dance to ‘Staying Alive’ – no experience necessary!
If your group/organisation are interested in getting involved in helping, organising and planning or just coming along, please get in touch at xrinverness@protonmail.com
Dermot Williamson
Kincraig.
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Independence dream
In tackling the cost of living crisis, child and fuel poverty along with racial and religious bigotry, trans rights to abortion access, equal marriage to conversion therapy, all is now assured by the new SNP leadership.
And with a fresh young Holyrood Cabinet, the campaign to create a socially democratic independent Scotland should now progress. However it remains a sadness that only 70 per cent of SNP members actually voted in the recent leadership contest, where three contrasting choices were presented.
In truth our new First Minister, Humza Yousaf, while conducting the good governance of Scotland, cannot protect the status quo which has failed to advance the case for independence, despite the disaster of Brexit and dysfunctional and corrupt UK Tory administrations.
Imagine what a richly endowed Scotland could achieve with the full powers of independence.
Grant Frazer
Newtonmore.
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Independent means
Jamie Hepburn is given a taxpayer-funded job as Independence Minister on £100,000 – three times what he’d be capable of earning in real life. There are 129 MSPs and over 7,000 people working for the Scottish Government.
The price of maintaining Holyrood and paying MSPs and staff has soared to well over £100 million a year. Time for a cull.
Clark Cross
Linlithgow.
