A COMMUNITY housing development on the North Coast 500 has been approved as part of efforts to curb local depopulation and a rise in tourist lets.
Scourie, in Sutherland, is among the villages which locals say have been suffering from region-wide depopulation.
The plans bring a number of ring-fenced homes for residents in a village they say are losing houses to tourist holiday lets.
Neil MacDonald, chair of the Scourie Community Development Company, said Scourie has been losing people of “all ages” and depopulation is a “big thing” in the area.
The Loch Duart salmon farm, local estate and other businesses provide plenty of employment locally, but there is not enough housing to support the jobs.
There is currently a waiting list for those looking to move into a new home in Scourie.
Starting with six new homes, and with Highland Council contributing another four, Macdonald hopes this will go some way to reducing the waiting list in the area.
“We should get affordable housing for working folk, MacDonald said. “It’s ring-fenced – you have to have work in the local area, or you have to have a family link.”
MacDonald continued that since the 1980s, around 50 council houses have been sold in Scourie, with around five houses remaining under council ownership.
Many of the houses in Scourie have been turned into North Coast 500 holiday lets, because they “earn good money.” He added the “balance has been upset for young folk getting a house easily in the village and to work in the area.”
A study conducted in 2019 found the popular tourist route left North Highland communities £22.8m better off.
The development company is also working on Scourie Rocks, an ambitious tourist hub that will show off late geologist Donald Shelly’s collection of rocks and minerals.
The roadside museum includes a café and should create six to 10 jobs, with hopes that the new housing will help support these jobs. Plans for the museum were last approved back in 2020.
MacDonald said: “We need something that we can stop and speak to these tourists and really explain our area.
“The Scourie Rocks project sits very integrally with the work we are doing on the housing to try and maintain employment and develop the area slightly, so it can deal better with the NC500. Plans have been approved for nine houses, but current expectations are to only complete six at present, because “build costs are huge”.
The first phase of the housing has been a collaborative effort between the development company and Scourie Community Council, with help from the Communities Housing Trust.
Hopes are the project could eventually expand up to 21 homes of varying shapes and sizes, influenced by community feedback. Access to the site is currently taken up with parking spaces for Scourie Primary School.
The community group believes that the current spaces are a “dangerous bottleneck” and have plans for a new school car park. A disused grassy area in front of the school will make way for the new spaces.
MacDonald said the new car park will be “a lot safer” for school traffic and residents of nearby Scouriemore.
The entire development will need final approval from the crofting commission. The land purchase will then be agreed later this year, and the community can apply for Scottish Government funding for the housing project.
