Around 200 people from the South Asian country have settled in the Highland Capital and are keen to establish a base where the community can regularly congregate together.

The 100-strong Highland Bangladeshi Association has raised about £23,000 towards the anticipated cost from donations and fund-raising.

Association chairman Sam Miah hopes the centre could become a focal point for the community and encourage people to socialise with each other.

"It would be a meeting place," said the 50-year-old, who moved to Inverness 25 years ago. "A centre where the children could learn about their background or where the women, who can often be left feeling isolated here, can meet up with each other.

"I came to Inverness in 1984 but we have become one of the biggest minority groups in the city.

"We have been looking now for the last year or two and seen one or two places but nothing concrete has come out of it. We would like somewhere suitable near the city centre. It could be a plot of land or hall or house we could convert."

On Sunday the fund-raising drive will continue with a dinner in aid of the planned community centre in the Craigmonie Hotel.

Many in the Bangladeshi community own or work in the city's Indian restaurants, explained Mr Miah, who himself runs Sam's Indian Cuisine on Church Street.

Earlier this year it emerged the Scottish Highland and Islands Moray Chinese Association (SHIMCA) were interested in establishing a multi-cultural centre in Inverness.

It would see SHIMCA and groups representing the city's Indian, Polish and Bangladeshi communities, amongst others, set up a meeting place under one roof.

A community centre was also mooted as a long-term objective but Mr Miah said its plans were unconnected.

SHIMCA's Monica Macpherson-Lee said a feasibility study into the merits of a base for the city's ethnic minorities would be carried out in the new year.

She said SHIMCA, which has a base in Ardconnel Terrace, Crown, was keen to integrate with the other groups and work together but did not know much about the Bangladeshi Association's centre plans.

"The feasibility study will ask all the groups in the community how they want to see this go forward," she said.

h.ross@inverness-courier.co.uk

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