Wester Loch Ewe Trust are planning to bring two areas of of land adjacent to Poolewe village into community ownership to enable a number of community benefit projects to be initiated.
Estimated Cost
£412,152
1. What do you want to do?
1.1 Take 25 hectares of land in Poolewe into community ownership, including a site designated for affordable housing development. Funding will be required for purchase, legal costs, and to support a project officer post; and
1.2 Take community ownership of an industrial yard in Poolewe which will be cleared to provide an access route into the area designated for affordable housing. Funding will be required for purchase and legal costs.
When projects 1.1 and 1.2 above have been successfully completed, these community benefit projects will be initiated:
AFFORDABLE HOUSING: Working in collaboration with housing association partner(s), affordable housing of up to 12 units will be developed in three phases to provide housing under a variety of tenures according to local demand, with a focus on key workers.
HELIPAD: A medical emergency evacuation helicopter landing pad.
CAMPERVAN STOPOVER: A campervan stopover with five pitches and basic services. Funding will be required for construction of the pitches, the water and power systems, and a waste disposal unit.
COMMUNITY WOODLAND: A community woodland area with path/bike trail.
AGRICULTURAL LAND: Preservation and extension of arable/grazing land which will be made available on a 3 year lease to the community by auction.1.1
2. Why is your project important for your community?
This project is to acquire the land necessary for the subsequent projects to move ahead. These projects are aligned with the aspirations of the Wester Loch Ewe Local Place Plan and will be defined more fully in separate BeConnected proposals.
3. What positive impact will your project have?
This project will enable the other identified projects to progress.
4. What key milestones have you achieved so far and what will your next steps be?
Wester Loch Ewe Trust, in collaboration with Wester Loch Ewe Community Council were awarded £19,788 in June 2025 from Scottish Land Fund to take forward planning and feasibility work for making a SLF Stage 2 funding application for the land purchase cost, associated legal costs, and for a project officer to take the projects forward. This work is almost complete and the application is currently scheduled for submission in July 2026. The work done included ground surveys and conceptual designs. Formal planning Pre-Apps for each project have been submitted to Highland Council in order to reduce the risk of future planning issues and the feedback has been all positive.
WLET has secured match funding from the Community Regeneration Fund and a donation from the charity that will build the helipad (that is in addition to funding the construction cost). Both of these will contribute towards the land purchase cost.
5. What is your anticipated start date/end date?
Land purchase: Q4 2026 – Q1 2027
While I am a strong supporter of community ownership in principle, I have concerns about this proposal, as envisaged here. I have tried to raise these but await an answer. I am not convinced that this has yet demonstrated the support of those directly affected (like me). Issues of concern include the proposed location and access to the proposed housing and the need for and potential impacts on local residents of the helipad. These issues I think should be properly discussed with the immediate community and resolved to our general satisfaction at this stage rather than left to the planning process. It would be helpful to confirm that a planning application is to be made for the helipad.
There are several factual errors in this comment. All questions raised by the writer and other members of the community have been addressed in the comprehensive community update circulated in December. At our public consultation events we have had overwhelming community support for our proposals, along with useful feedback. The housing is to be located in the area designated by Highland Council and road access issues were addressed in the update document. Residents living within sight of the helipad location have not expressed any concerns and the update document specifically states: "... the first project to be undertaken will be the helipad as it is funded and ready to go ahead, subject to planning permission from Highland Council", so it was made clear that normal planning processes will be followed. We urge anyone with questions or comments to come along to our next public consultation events on 29th and 30th June when we will be presenting our final plans.
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While I am a strong supporter of community ownership in principle, I have concerns about this proposal, as envisaged here. I have tried to raise these but await an answer. I am not convinced that this has yet demonstrated the support of those directly affected (like me). Issues of concern include the proposed location and access to the proposed housing and the need for and potential impacts on local residents of the helipad. These issues I think should be properly discussed with the immediate community and resolved to our general satisfaction at this stage rather than left to the planning process. It would be helpful to confirm that a planning application is to be made for the helipad.
There are several factual errors in this comment. All questions raised by the writer and other members of the community have been addressed in the comprehensive community update circulated in December. At our public consultation events we have had overwhelming community support for our proposals, along with useful feedback. The housing is to be located in the area designated by Highland Council and road access issues were addressed in the update document. Residents living within sight of the helipad location have not expressed any concerns and the update document specifically states: "... the first project to be undertaken will be the helipad as it is funded and ready to go ahead, subject to planning permission from Highland Council", so it was made clear that normal planning processes will be followed. We urge anyone with questions or comments to come along to our next public consultation events on 29th and 30th June when we will be presenting our final plans.
I fundamentally disagree with every word in this comment.