Inverness former nursing home could be demolished under new plan
The owners of a former Inverness nursing home have applied for permission to demolish what remains of the premises.
Manda Construction Ltd was refused permission by Highland Council in 2023 to create two new homes on the former Fairfield Nursing Home site in the Highland capital's Fairfield Road.
The site has been shut since 2018, not long after inspectors slapped an improvement notice on the care home's operators.
An initial application in 2020 by Inverness Property Management to convert the care home into a hotel with 32 bedrooms was rejected following objections from neighbours over its lack of parking and worries about pedestrian safety.
Two subsequent housing-related planning applications for the site were later approved – a change of use application in 2021 and a partial-demolition application in October 2022 that included the change of use of the remaining buildings to form two houses.
Manda Construction sought permission to construct two three-bedroom semi-detached homes in the gap formed by the partial demolition of the site, but that was rejected by council planners under delegated powers.
They ruled the two-storey houses occupied too much space within their respective plots.
They also stated that "the suitability of the site for surface water drainage has not been demonstrated and therefore the proposal does not accord with the Highland Wide Local Development Plan."
In it application to demolish the remaining structure on the site the applicant states that it is “uneconomic to refurbish.”
The demolition application is currently subject to consultation, the planning authority to inform “relevant parties” that could include immediate neighbours as well as statutory bodies.
Online details appear to indicate that both the council’s own forestry and archaeology teams have been consulted, but are yet to respond the application to demolish.
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