Hostel will remain an eyesore for fifth tourist season
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THE eyesore that is the fire-ravaged former Eastgate Hostel looks set to be an ugly blot on the cityscape for the fifth summer in a row.
Owners of the historic building met with council officers last week to discuss progress towards its restoration, after which Highland Council’s city centre manager David Haas admitted it could be “several months” before any work actually starts.
The building went up in flames in April 2013 – 1455 days ago – and it has been an uphill battle ever since to get interested parties to agree and commit to work needed to repair it.
An original plan to install a new roof and then add internal support structures to achieve a faster rebuild were dashed when engineers found the building’s unconventional construction retained too little load-bearing capacity.
A new planning application was then lodged at the end of last year, proposing a steel frame to provide support to the roof and all five floor levels as well as a reconstructed facade.
An application for building in a conservation area was also lodged.
Both are under consideration and agents are preparing a further application for a building warrant.
“This will detail the specific works that need to take place and all the associated technical aspects,” Mr Haas said.
“Once that goes in, it confirms the three owners of the site have reached agreement in principle regarding the type of work to be undertaken.”
While claiming the lodging of this application – which he expects to happen within the next two weeks – represents “light at the end of the tunnel” he warned it could still be several months before “boots are on the ground” and work gets under way.
That news infuriated Councillor Jim Crawford who runs a chiropodist business nearby and who said the council should be stepping in with a compulsory purchase order for the site.
“The whole situation is completely ridiculous,” he said.
“David Haas has been ‘optimistic’ about the process for the past four years, assuring us it was all in hand and in progress and here we are with nothing meaningful having happened.
“The impact on businesses around the site has been huge and I would be delighted if we moved down the road now to a compulsory order.
“You’ve got the Town House about to come back into use as an absolutely superb piece of city centre architecture and then down at our end of the street you have this absolute blight.
“The council should step in, pay a nominal amount to the owners and just take it out of their hands.
“You could do the building up, turn it into good modern flats and then sell it on.
“Getting everything sorted might be a difficult job but there is absolutely no excuse for things taking as long as they have.”
City centre councillors Donnie Kerr and Richard Laird rejected the idea of a compulsory purchase order, with Cllr Laird suggesting it would be “a tremendous waste of public money”.
Cllr Kerr also said it was not the “quick fix” it might appear, adding: “At the end of the day the council doesn’t own this building and it’s up to the owners to sort things out among themselves.
“This is not something we can force through, though I think the practice of bringing owners together with officers regularly has certainly made it clear how keen we are to see action. I think keeping that pressure up is our best way of working.”
Inverness Central councillor Janet Campbell said the matter was “in the hands” of the building’s owners.
“We all recognise that this is a very special historic building and the owners have a responsibility to restore it properly, not least to the long-suffering citizens of the city of Inverness who have had to put up with it in its current state for so long now,” she said.
Ward colleague Bet McAllister said: “It is disappointing that things aren’t further along but I think, being the type of building it is, problems have turned up in terms of the quality of works from times gone by and of course it’s important that a plan is in place to make sure it is restored not just quickly, but properly and safely as well.”
Jackie Cuddy, who is manager of the Eastgate Shopping Centre which has an entrance adjacent to the hostel and vice-chairwoman of Inverness Business Improvement District, said: “Any progress is good news. This just needs to get sorted as quickly as possible.”
Owners and council officers are due to meet again in a month’s time.
