Planning Watch UK

The Highland capital could earn the dubious honour after a panel of UK architects and designers singled it out for its “monstrous” city centre design and “mushrooming suburban sprawl”.

The awards panel has also nominated Methil, in Fife, for the “hulking Soviet-style” power station that dominates its docks.

Until now, the awards have been open only to Scottish towns and cities, but this year a number of English locations are being suggested as possible winners, including Corby, in Northamptonshire,, Bradford, Sunderland and Salford.

Previous recipients of the unwanted gong include Glenrothes, Coatbridge and the two-time winner Cumbernauld.

As the competition now covers the UK, the title will be even less coveted.

“Inverness has been called the fastest-growing city in Europe but at what price?” said a spokesman for the Carbuncle Awards.

“It has been dubbed ‘Tulloch town’ by critics due to that developer’s dominance over an ever-mushrooming suburban sprawl.

“In addition, the historic centre has been blighted by box-like monstrosities dating back to the 1960s.”

The buildings that caused greatest offence to the panel of judges, which includes Wayne Hemingway, a fashion designer, are the twin concrete tower blocks that dominate the city’s skyline.

One of the edifices previously housed the headquarters of Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) but has now been turned into flats. The other houses the offices of the Crofters Commission.

Both structures were exposed to international derision by the American travel writer Bill Bryson in his book Notes From a Small Island.

He described them as “two sensationally ugly modern office buildings that blot the town centre beyond any hope of redemption”.

“They weren’t just ugly and large, but so ill-designed that you could actually walk round them twice without ever finding the front entrance,” he wrote.

While Alex Graham, the deputy provost of Inverness, conceded that the city’s appearance was not perfect, he said it was ridiculous to single it out as one of the ugliest in the UK.

“It is unfortunate we have inherited some particularly unsightly buildings that were put up in the 1960s near the River Ness,” he said.

“Sadly they have spoiled what should be a terrific view of the city’s skyline.

“Despite this, Inverness is an attractive city with tremendous charm and we have recently spent £7m transforming the old town.

“The population has continued to grow throughout the recession and that just wouldn’t happen if it really was a dismal place to live.”

Professor James Hunter, a former chief executive of HIE, said that urban planners were to blame for the city’s poor appearance. “Inverness has the great natural advantage of having a dramatic, fast-flowing river going right through the middle of it,” he said.

“However, planners seemed to turn their back on it and even today not enough is being done to capitalise on it.”

Hunter, who is director of the UHI’s history department, described his former workplace and its sister building as “completely horrible and repulsive”.

While the judging panel said Methil had suffered from decades of deindustrialisation, Arthur Robertson, an SNP councillor in the Fife town, said measures were being taken to arrest its decline.

“The power plant is not the most attractive of buildings, but it is planned to be removed in the very near future,” he said. “We are working hard on regenerating the seafront and I’m confident the negative headlines will be reversed in years to come.”

John Glenday, of Urban Realm, the architectural magazine that runs the Carbuncle Awards, rebutted criticism that they were too negative, insisting that they were a “force for good and a real motivator for change”.

“Our agenda is not to kick a town when it’s down, but to offer constructive help and advice,” he said. “We want to help turn cities around and for them to use the Carbuncles as a springboard for future growth.”

Glenday also denied that the awards tended to single out poor communities.

“The point is to highlight locations which have potential that local leaders are failing to exploit,” he said.

“Truly depressing places are the ones stifled by a lack of attention, creativity and ambition.”

Members of public are being invited to nominate their contenders for the award. The winner will be decided by public vote later this year.

Salford, in Greater Manchester, was nominated for its “placelessness” and grim tower blocks, Corby for its mishandled attempts at regeneration and Sunderland for failing to stop a “steady drain” of facilities and people to nearby Newcastle.

Bradford was chosen after plans for a new shopping precinct were aborted, leaving a muddy cavity in the heart of the city centre.

Last year’s winner was the Fife new town of Glenrothes, which was lambasted for its “drab and dismal” centre and “woeful” 1980s shopping centre.

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