The Ironworks win a reprieve after a surprise move by councillors to defer the decision to demolish the main music venue in Inverness and build a £30 million Courtyard by Marriott hotel in its place

The Ironworks live music and events venue has been granted a reprieve in a surprise move by Highland councillors.

Members of the south planning applications committee yesterday voted to defer the controversial application to build a new £30 million hotel on the site, calling for more information despite planning officers having recommended approval of the revised plans.

The move will come as a blow to developer Bricks Group which has been trying since 2019 to get approval for the scheme, even significantly redrawing plans to meet earlier design criticisms.

Ahead of the decision to defer, councillors had apparently been lining up at the planning meeting to criticise the proposals again.

Councillor Laurie Fraser described the planned 155-bedrom Courtyard by Marriott hotel as “monolithic”.

He actually called for the planning application to be thrown out, saying the development would “compromise the heritage and culture” within what is a designated conservation area and also criticising it as over-development of the site.

Councillor Isabelle Mackenzie strongly agreed, adding: “I am concerned with developments such as these, which detract, I feel, from the city centre.

“My concern with this is where it is sitting within Academy Street, it is going to be a thoroughfare.

“It looms high and above the other wee historical buildings along there.

“I just feel this development is far too high, too large and sticks out like a sore thumb, and it does compromise the conservation area, and I feel it will impact greatly on Inverness’s historic townscape views and skylines.”

Councillor Bill Lobban said: “I appreciate that the design is subjective but just how many times do we have to look at plans for hotels that look as though they were designed in the Soviet Union with blocks of Lego?

“I’m sorry, this is not a pretty building and I think ‘is this the appropriate building for the middle of a historic town?’ I remain to be convinced.”

Other members asked about the logistics, such as bin collection and car parking.

It was new councillor Michael Cameron who tabled an amendment to defer making a decision at this point.

He said: “I would say that some of the things that have been raised, I do have concerns with, and as a local member I don’t particularly like the hotel, but I am in no way an expert in city centre hotels.”

On the suggestion that his amendment should be voted on, though, Cllr Fraser said he wanted to see a decision made one way or another by the meeting.

After a short break he and Cllr Mackenzie returned with an amendment to reject the application which stated that the hotel development would have an “unacceptable impact” on the city.

That, however, was defeated by seven votes to six.

A subsequent vote to approve the application was defeated on the same basis before the deferral amendment was passed by 11 votes to three.

Speaking afterwards, Cllr Cameron said: "There were questions in the transport report that related to boundaries and ownership. These were resolved in some documents and conversations that were not clear in the online planning portal or the officer's report.

"There were also differences between the versions of documents online and the printed pack given to members.

"Given how many of us are new to planning I felt we have to have more time to clarify not just the decisions made by officers but the process and information they relied on while making those decisions."

The application will now return to a future meeting of the south planning committee.