Plans for housing on Inverness golf club site lodged months before closure plans announced

Shocked members of a city golf club where the 18-hole course is to close have discovered plans were submitted last summer to build homes on the site.

The new owners of the Fairways course – home to Loch Ness Golf Club – wrote to members two weeks ago announcing the closure of the 18-hole course due to declining membership, but stating other facilities including a nine-hole course and driving range will be retained and upgraded.

The complex is owned by Fairways Inverness Ltd whose directors include property developers David Cameron and David Sutherland.

But it has now emerged Fairways and Kirkwood Homes submitted a proposal last July – the same month Fairways Inverness Ltd acquired the facility – for major development of the land under a call for sites to be included in the Inner Moray Firth Local Development Plan (IMFLDP).

Although it was zoned as green space five years ago, they proposed the 78-hectare site be used for mixed development including private and affordable homes, a new primary school and community campus, office and retail development. Green space would be retained and there would be new woodland planting.

For more see the Inverness Courier

Related article: Inverness 18-hole golf course to close as membership falls

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