Fears over new Fort William care home bid

A FRESH bid has been submitted this week to build a 90-bed private care home for the elderly in Fort William, just months after the plan was thrown out by councillors who branded the proposed building an “institution”.

The application has been lodged by Kingsgate Developments Ltd, which already has consent for a 60-bed home on the same Camaghael site next to Fort William Health Centre.

An application to extend it with an additional 30 beds was rejected by the Ross, Skye and Lochaber planning committee earlier this year. One member of the committee, Biz Campbell, described the proposal as a “granny farm”.

The planning committee addressed the representations of residents and health professionals who had concerns about the size of the home and the subsequent strain on local services.

A motion to reject the application proposed by Cllr Donald Cameron, seconded by Lochaber provost Allan Henderson, succeeded by six votes to four.

The company lodged an appeal with the Scottish Government’s planning directorate, which was to have been aired at a three-day public inquiry in March, but Kingsgate withdrew its appeal at the 11th hour.

However, the Lochaber News understands that since then, Kingsgate has sold or is in the process of selling the site to a consortium called Care and Lifestyles Developments Ltd.

It is believed that the planning application has been lodged by Kingsgate in order to “speed up” the planning process. If granted, the care home would be built and run by the Care and Lifestyles consortium.

It is being speculated locally that the new consortium believes only 90 beds, rather than 60, would be a financially viable operation.

Kingsgate had acquired the site from the Apollo Medical Group, which built the £7 million health centre.

The fresh bid comes just weeks after Highland Council scrapped plans to build a new 32-bed care home to replace Fort William’s Invernevis House.

Yesterday, Fort William and Ardnamurchan councillor Bren Gormley said the application had “his alarm bells ringing”.

Cllr Gormley, who is not a member of the planning committee, said: “It was made perfectly clear at the time that a home of this size would totally skew the ability of our local health and social services to provide the necessary back-up care needed.

“At the recent council meeting over the local authority care homes, officials admitted talking to private care home operators. It’s not clear whether Kingsgate, or this mystery consortium, was one of them.

“Certainly, the signals given by the council’s decision not go ahead with the manifesto pledge to build new homes have given this private operator a degree of comfort.

“I’m not suggesting they’ve been given any clear assurances, but to me the direction of travel does not look good.

“The fact that Kingsgate no longer appear to own the site raises eyebrows and those of us who have concerns about this proposal will be finding ways to object.

“But with the plug pulled on a new-build Invernevis, it gives a different perspective. It will be interesting to see how the planning committee goes.”

At the time of Kingsgate’s late appeal withdrawal, Cllr Cameron told the LN: “I am pleased that the developer has withdrawn as placing the biggest care home in the Highlands in Lochaber would be over-provision on a grand scale.

“In some ways I am disappointed that the hearing did not go ahead. We had a robust defence of the stance we took and the hearing could have nailed some of our concerns over this whole process, not least the lack of consultation with the caring professions in the area.”

Yesterday, Cllr Cameron confined his comments to: “I would expect this application to come before the planning committee and like all other applications it will be dealt with on its own merits.”

The Invernevis Action Group, meanwhile, is preparing a petition against the new 90-bed proposal.

No-one from Kingsgate was available for comment yesterday as the LN went to press.