Highland Council transport officers still worried over ‘extremely substandard’ road visibility at site of former Black Isle church; could these fears scupper plans for revamp of Munlochy’s Knockbain Church?

"Severely" poor road visibility could scupper plans to transform a disused Black Isle kirk - unless developers fund speed reduction measures.

That's the verdict of Highland Council's transport planning team in response to applicant Ewen Mackinnon’s proposals to breathe new life into Knockbain Church in Munlochy by turning it into a design studio, shop and café.

If approved, the Inverness man plans to transform the former Church of Scotland site’s interior "to accommodate the new use” but there would be “minimal alterations” to the exterior “sufficient to facilitate safe and equal access".

However, while the proposal generated positive buzz online when it first emerged back in October, the C-listed Victorian building’s road access onto the B9161 road through Munlochy has been a big issue.

Transport officers had previously flagged concerns over the poor visibility splays at the entrances to the kirk's car park, as well as other issues such as the width of the entries.

This sparked modifications to the original proposals, including rebuilding the entrance wall pillars so they are inside the boundary instead of jutting as far into the road.

But although transport officers praised some of the changes made in their latest response on February 5 - with the new entry widths now being deemed acceptable - the "severely substandard" visibility splays remain a major stumbling block at the speeds that vehicles are currently passing by.

The developer’s agents had suggested increased policing of the 20mph limit to ensure the junctions are safer - with surveys showing motorists are travelling far faster than they should be as they pass the kirk.

But this was knocked back by the transport team, which said it is the police's job to enforce speeding rules not the local authority, and that "it is not Highland Council or Police Scotland policy to amend or enforce speed limits to make a planning application work".

The transport planning team continued: "The application has to stand on its own merits with whatever road conditions are there at the time.

"The lack of compliance with the speed limit may lie in the fact that the road in this area has a rural look and feel as traffic speeds do not begin to reduce until vehicles are within the more urban part of Munlochy.

"Based on the above, the Transport Planning team have no option but to withhold support of this development as the visibility from the access is severely substandard and the speed of traffic in the area does not support a reduced visibility splay.

"In addition, the change in use from a church to a café/retail space will create completely different traffic patterns that will increase the use of the access from occasional use to daily, prolonged use.

"The combination of increased use plus poor visibility is likely to create a road safety hazard and increase the potential risk of accidents at the access."

They added that surveys of the site showed that current visibility splays from the access are roughly 15 metres to the north and only eight metres to the south.

Road traffic surveys revealed that, despite the 20mph limit at the site, the kirk’s position right near the start of that limit meant that the “85th percentile of traffic” recorded at the location were doing 39.4mph to the south of the entrances, and 34.4mph to the north.

At those speeds, they insisted that “visibility splays in the region of 90 metres in both directions would be required”.

But, although they stressed they could not support the application in its current form, they did appear to leave the door open for changes that could still make it possible.

They said: “The Transport Planning Team have previously requested an engineering solution to the problem that is considered to be appropriate and proportionate to the proposed development.

“The proposed scheme includes a set of traffic calming on the north and south approaches to the access that will reduce the speed of traffic to a level that means the existing visibility splays are adequate. The scheme could potentially include signing to promote the development.”

Do you want to respond to this article? If so, click here to submit your thoughts and they may be published in print.