Highland Council move risks scuppering £3.4 million Caley Thistle deal
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The risks to Inverness Caledonian Thistle have been laid bare after Highland Council called in its own decision jeopardising a £3.4 million deal for a battery storage farm.
Last night, the board met with fans and others concerned with the club to outline the tense stand-off between Caley Thistle and the council after the local authority pulled in a planning decision.
Chairman of the board Ross Morrison revealed that if the council are able to stymie the deal then the club could have "difficulties in surviving."
The board are working on a legal challenge to "knock out" council's vote and has been in touch with the local authority but has only had “half answers” so far.
If that fails, then they would appeal the decision with the Scottish Government Reporter – a technical analysis when planning decisions need to be determined due to a dispute.
The club were hoping to package and sell on the battery farm project near Fairways Business Park to a major utilities company to restructure and invest in its business.
But that was dependent on getting planning permission which was granted last month before the chairman and vice chairman of south planning sought to have it reviewed at next week’s full council meeting.
In an email to councillors, Nairn member Paul Oldham claimed the process was “not a good look” for the council and the committee was “barely quorate” – the club believes this was done improperly.
And both comments were seized on last night with “barely quorate” compared to being “barely pregnant” by Mr Morrison while fans present suggested that the review itself was “not a good look” for the council.
That move puts huge pressure on Caley Thistle, a point emphasised by CEO Scot Gardiner said that “life in the Championship is very, very hard.”
He told the meeting that the club needs to generate at least £500,000 from non-football sources to keep out of the red
“Being relegated into the Championship took away £650,000 overnight from away alone,” he said.
“In the Championship every year we will lose between £550,000, £650,000 to £950,000 – that's what we'll lose if we're going to have a full-time team and a full-time academy, that's what's going to happen.”
Mr Morrison, when asked what happens if the deal does not ultimately go through, said: “We would have difficulties, difficulties in surviving, we'd have to go to our directors again and investors and with the hope that they can come back in again and help us.
“The other thing you've got to look at is that you still have an asset which can provide an income because it's not as if it's dead – it's just been put off for a while so the viability of the limited company is still there because it is still an asset.”
He added: “We think that the procedure has been done wrongly by Highland Council. We're going to call them out. We've been doing it. We've made several legal representations. We still haven't had a correct answer.
“I don't know what the legal mechanism would be but we feel that the notice of amendment has been done incorrectly and the procedures haven't been followed properly.
“And our KC backs us up on that – his exact words were ‘the council are a bit of a pickle.’”
