Green light given by Highland Council for temporary new shop at Inverness bus station
An Inverness business owner has been given the green light to reopen the doors of his shop after the previous building was demolished.
A planning application has been approved to site a portable building to serve as a newsagents at Inverness bus station in Farraline Park.
The application was submitted by Munawar Ahmad who had to close his previous shop, Station News, last autumn ahead of the building’s demolition to make way for for a planned new hotel.
Inverness city centre shop to close after 13 years to make way for planned hotel
Demolition work begins on historic Rose Street Hall in Inverness
The site of the temporary building, which will measure 16m by 5.44m, is immediately next to Rose Street multi-storey car park and will front onto the bus station, providing footfall.
Temporary permission has been given by Highland Council planning officers for three years and will cease to have effect on August 1 2027.
Mr Ahmad ran his previous shop for 13 years after moving to Inverness from London where he and a business partner ran a shop at Victoria bus station.
When the partnership split up, Mr Ahmad's uncle, who lives in Alness, flagged up the possibility of a business opportunity at the bus station in the Highland capital.
As well as proving handy for bus passengers, the shop was also popular with city centre office workers parking at Rose Street car park.
When he closed the business in October 2023, Mr Ahmad told the Inverness Courier he had tried to find alternative premises in the city centre but had been unable to find anywhere suitable at a reasonable rent.
The site of the planned 210-bed hotel is opposite the now-demolished historic Rose Street Hall
Plans for the £20 million six-storey Hampton by Hilton were unveiled by Stewart Campbell, a director of SRP Inverness Ltd, in February 2019.
They were approved by Highland councillors in October 2019 although a timescale on the project proceeding remains uncertain.
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