£1.7m upgrade of Fort William care home agreed

A five-year project to upgrade a council-run care home in Fort William has been approved.

Highland Council’s housing and social work committee voted 13 to 6 in favour of the £1.7m programme.

The upgrade will extend the capacity at Invernevis, allowing it to take 28 residents.

A previous administration involving the SNP wanted to build a new home at Fort William but the project was abandoned on cost grounds last year.

Plans to replace local authority-run homes in Grantown-on-Spey, Inverness, Muir of Ord and Tain were also scrapped.

SNP councillors on the housing and social work committee raised the matter again.

They argued that Scottish government money would be available for a new building at Fort William.

The council has already agreed to upgrade Ach an Eas, in Inverness, and Grant House, in Grantown-on-Spey, at a cost of £1.8m.

Highland has also been examining the future of the vacant Burnside Home site, in Inverness.