Plans for a new church in Inverness have cleared a hurdle after securing planning permission in principle.
The Church of Scotland has been seeking to build a new church on land off Drumfield Road for several years.
St Columba Church, a congregation formed following the closure of St Columba High Church in the city’s Bank Street in 2010, has been seeking to build a new home to serve not only as a place of worship but also as a community hub.
That ambition appeared to be moving forward in 2018 when the congregation, who current meet at Drummond School, bought the Drumfield Road land.
Planning permission in principle was then granted but before work could proceed further, the Covid pandemic hit and this disrupted the budget and design process.
Ever since then, the church has periodically renewed that permission, which usually only lasts for three years, in order to prevent it lapsing.
And they have once again successfully renewed that permission.
However, unlike after previous renewals, hopes are high that the project will now go forward, as more funding is now in place.
Speaking after the renewal was lodged late last year, St Columba’s Minister, Rev Scott McRoberts, said this improved financial position meant the project can now progress.
He said: “Since St Columba’s in the city centre closed and we moved closer to where new housing developments were, we have been a bit invisible, however since that time the congregation has been growing with lots of families particularly. So, it has taken us quite a long time to have enough money to be thinking of undertaking a building project seriously.
“Post-Covid it feels as if everybody is still experiencing that disconnection and isolation from each other, and that seems to have had an effect on us as a community, so it’s important for us to be re-establishing a space in the area. ”
Granting permission under delegated powers, Highland Council planners said: “This site is adjacent to land developed (the Tesco store) and permitted for a neighbourhood/district centre to serve the Nessside, Ness Castle and Holm neighbourhoods.
“The local development plan allocates the wider landholding for housing, this application will allow a neighbourhood facility which will promote use diversity. In any event, the land between a supermarket service yard and a primary substation is not particularly suitable for housing use.
“Therefore, the siting of the proposed development is not seen as incompatible.”
They noted that SSEN Transmission, which runs a nearby 132kV electrical substation, had raised some concerns over potential for “adverse impacts on its ability to continue to operate the substation safely and without any impediment, including during the construction phase of development”.
But the planners added that conditions attached to the permission would negate these, saying: “To eliminate its potential adverse impacts on Inverness 132kV substation, conditions requiring the arrangement for gated access to the SSE site from the church access and a Construction Management Plan (CMS) have been requested to attached to any planning consent to be approved.”
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