Inverness Bellfield Park sauna plan concerns spark assurances from Community Sauna Highland CIC over potential noise, car parking and visual impact
Sauna applicants seeking to set up a site in an Inverness park have moved to address local concerns over the development.
Community Sauna Highland CIC lodged an application back in February for a new community sauna in a corner of Bellfield Park.
If approved it would feature two small modular wooden buildings enclosed within a tall wooden fence and entrance gate, with plunge pools inside the enclosure.
The sauna would be located in a corner of the park immediately to the east of the playground and south of the tennis courts; and would not affect any of the existing trees on the site.
The proposal has sparked significant local interest, with many in the city voicing their opinions on social media after news of the plan first emerged.
Although much of this was positive, there were also a range of concerns raised over privacy and potential noise disturbance. A number of neighbours also lodged objections covering several areas - including noise, potential parking issues, and a reliance on sauna-goers to use nearby public toilets instead of them being provided on site.
The latter view was also shared by Highland Council’s environmental health team, who objected in March over the initial lack of toilet facilities in the original plan.
Modified drawings have since been lodged showing a toilet has been added within one of the two planned buildings - presumably in response to that objection,
And now the applicants have moved to address some of the neighbours’ other concerns over parking, noise and the visual design of the site.
In new comments submitted to Highland Council as part of the planning process, Sauna Highland CIC’s directors, Fergus Weir and Pippa Hembry, claim that the nature of the sauna they have planned means that noise should not be an issue.
They also hope to offer “incentives” to encourage walking and cycling among those seeking to visit the site.
In their letter they said: “The sauna will bring more people to Bellfield Park and we hope that this can be a positive for Inverness, and the groups and services that make good use of the park already.
"We appreciate that this will mean more people driving to the park and using the parking bays that are already available there. However, Bellfield Park has a large catchment area of people who live within a 20 minute walk, cycle or bus journey.
"We are heavily promoting active travel to the site with planned incentives for this.
"We are also encouraging people to park across the river when possible, to enjoy the walk to and from the Eden Court and Cathedral car parks, before and after the sauna.
"We cannot prevent people seeking to park around Bellfield Park but we are offering all we can to reduce driving to the site."
Addressing noise concerns, they stressed that there will be no loud music, and anticipate noise levels being no more than those of existing park users elsewhere.
"The primary intention of this project is to promote well-being, positive mental and physical health, through thermal contrast bathing,” they continued.
"This activity is, by its very nature, intended to be a quiet, reflective and restful act.
"Use of electronic devices on site will be discouraged. There will be no loud music.
"Our patrons enjoying a quiet experience in a public park, alternating between inside a heavily insulated sauna structure, or resting and cooling down outside, are not expected to add any additional noise that would be comparable to any other park user e.g. tennis courts or children' play park."
Moving on to the look of the facility, they added: "As stated, our intention is to make this experience about well-being and natural health practices, and therefore we wish the surroundings and environs to reflect this through natural materials and visually appealing and restorative design.
"Our primary cladding material for both structures is to be high-quality, visually appealing, wood cladding. This is to ensure visual and structural integrity for the maximum period of time.
"We are keen to keep conversations about our proposed use of Bellfield Park open will all stakeholders. Please let us know if further conversations, actions or documentation would be useful in any way."
Find out more about planning applications that affect you at the Public Notice Portal.
