Inverness coffee shop plan near Inverness Castle gets the green light from Highland Council
A Highland barista business looks set to grow further after it won approval for a new coffee shop in Inverness city centre.
The Highland Coffee Academy, which launched in 2022, runs popular barista workshops as well as a mobile pop-up coffee shop or ‘pod’ that visits public locations and also caters to private events.
And fans of its coffees will soon be able to get their fix from a permanent site as well as the mobile pod after Highland Council planners approved plans for it to open a coffee shop a stone’s throw from Inverness Castle.
The business has secured permission for a ‘change of use’ of a vacant office building at 81 Castle Street.
The vacant unit, which previously housed Business Gateway before it relocated inside Highland Council’s headquarters, currently sits empty.
But it will become a coffee shop and café serving the likes of cakes, pastries and paninis.
Images lodged with the application suggest the new coffee shop will be named Kali Coffee, although the applicants behind it are The Highland Coffee Academy.
Granting permission under delegated powers, council officer Jennifer Mair said: “No external alterations are proposed beyond painting the exterior and replacing the existing signage.
“Internally office and bathroom space to the rear of the unit are to be reconfigured with the addition of a prep area. A servery and seating are to be added within the main space of the unit.
“The site lies within the defined city centre and Inverness Riverside Conservation Area. The building, while traditional, is not listed, with the unit currently vacant.
“Overall, the re-use of an existing vacant unit as a coffee shop within the defined city centre is considered to be acceptable and complies with the policies and provisions of the development plan.”
They added that the council’s environmental health team had initially objected to the application over an initial “lack of information” regarding the types of food which would be sold, but that further correspondence from the applicant had confirmed that “there will be no hot food sold on the premises other than toasties/paninis, and the only cooking appliance is a panini grill.”
They continued; “In addition, that an agreement has been made with [nearby business] Café 1, to allow the use of the lane adjacent to the shop to be used for off-street storage of waste bins.”
The team subsequently lifted their objection, subject to conditions being attached to the permission addressing those areas.
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