Highland Council grants planning permission for 400 new Culloden homes despite councillors lukewarm reception of the plans citing numerous pressures on services from the development

Highland Council has granted Springfield Properties planning permission to build 400 homes in Culloden – the site is near Stratton Lodge.

The move was hardly welcomed by the members of the council’s south planning applications committee but it was felt there were limited grounds to reject.

Springfield will now build a housing estate of up to 400 units, associated infrastructure, at the Milton of Culloden South development.

The 33-hectare site sits immediately to the north-east of Stratton Lodge on land sandwiched between Culloden's Caulfield Road and the A96.

At least a quarter of the homes would be “affordable housing” on what is currently a mix of farmland, mature woodland, with a scheduled historic monument on the site.

Two additional conditions on the development were accepted, one to get officials to secure bus stops should an operator in the future seek to develop routes there.

The second was to establish a community liaison group to assuage concerns about a development of this size and its implementation.

A bid to secure a condition preventing anyone from moving into the homes before a solution had been found to the GP crisis in the area was rejected as “not competent.”

That means the council has no powers to enforce what Councillor Trish Robertson was trying to achieve as she is concerned about NHS Highland moving slowly.

So the development will continue unhindered with residents moving in without clarity on whether they can access medical services nearby or not.

In July of last year two medical practices – Culloden Medical Practice and Culloden Surgery – closed their doors to new patients due to spiralling numbers.

Cllr Morven Reid also voiced concerns that were echoed by Culloden Community Council, which objected to the proposal.

She said she would have been “much more content” with the plans had Culloden Academy and other nearby schools been scheduled for investment.

Cllr Reid noted that Stratton Primary School has a site and “should be completed alongside this development” – but that too is not on the investment plan.

Culloden Community Council objected over the pressures the new housing will place on existing services and infrastructure.

It stated: “The excessively high demands on the medical, social, and educational infrastructure within the Culloden community are already known about, so this application to increase the number of houses at this time is an additional burden that the community will not be able to cope with”.

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