TAXPAYERS handed an Inverness building firm a substantial profit when land on the outskirts of the city was sold to the organisers of next year’s Highland Housing Fair.

The developer was registered as the new owner of the land on 16th November 2006, two days after HHA lodged a planning application for the site on the southern edge of Inverness. It was transferred to HHA on 8th August, 2007.

The fair takes place in August 2009 and will showcase the best in housing design, innovation and technology. It has been dogged by controversy and the Scottish Public Service Ombudsman (SPSO) is currently investigating the conduct of Highland Council planning officials after an e-mail obtained by The Inverness Courier suggested they made up their minds about the planning application prior to the start of a public consultation exercise.

Now campaigners are calling for a full investigation.

"The whole affair is a public disgrace with no thought to the affect to the local community and, at the very least, the matter should be the subject of a full public inquiry," said Barrie Haycock, chairman of Planning Watch UK.

"Highland Council has driven a train through their own Local Plan and we have the unacceptable situation that Tulloch Homes has banked £500,000, as a direct consequence of the actions of the various factions involved."

The fair, the first of its kind in the UK, was due to take place in Smithon but the site was judged too small. More than 30 sites were then considered by HHA and developers approached before the site at Balvonie was chosen.

Although the land is designated as "green wedge", there was an indication made by the Reporter at the Inverness Local Plan Public Inquiry in 2004 that this could change in the future.

According to Susan Torrance, the alliance’s chief executive, Tulloch Homes started negotiations with the former land owner Derek Munro more than three years ago.

"I appreciate what it looks like, but it was not a matter of Tulloch making a quick buck," she said. "They had acquired the land and intended to hold onto it as long as it took to get it into the Local Plan. That is why they paid the money they did for it.

"This site was suggested to us by Tulloch very late on."

She said it would have been too risky for HHA to try and buy the land without planning permission, which was a condition of the sale. Developers were also unwilling to sell land zoned for housing, which she claimed would have cost the HHA between £4 million and £6 million.

Planning Watch UK chairman Barrie Haycock at the site of the Highland Housing Fair. Bobby Nelson

The price paid by HHA covers the 40-acre site as well as rights to services and an additional one acre, which will provide access. HHA will also contribute towards a new road linking Milton of Leys with the Inshes area.

"If I hand on heart thought we could have got a better deal for the site, I would have done that," Ms Torrance said. "It was the only option available to us."

A Tulloch spokesman stressed that missives of sale for the land were agreed long before HHA expressed an interest in the site, which the company had viewed as a long-term acquisition.

"Highland Council approached us the following year asking us to sell the site to them and after discussion we agreed to do so to assist them in their initiative," the spokesman explained. "The council simply could not have acquired housing land elsewhere so cheaply. The council received a real bargain and when the fair is complete the value will be several times more than the council paid for it."

But Tory MSP Mary Scanlon, who represents the Highlands and Islands, thinks the profit made by Tulloch Homes was "excessive" given the desperate need for cash elsewhere.

"Given that Highland Council has a debt of over £500 million, the profit within nine months for the housing fair land certainly does seem excessive. The payment for this land will simply add to the current debt, which is a burden on every council tax payer," she said.

The Highland Housing Alliance was set up in 2005 as a not-for-profit organisation to build more affordable and private homes. It is financed by the landbank fund, which is made up of monies from Highland Council and Communities Scotland.

One hundred homes will be built as part of the council-backed project, which will involve a month-long exhibition. It is expected to attract 30,000 visitors.

14th November 2006: Highland Housing Alliance applies for planning permission for the site at Balvonie Braes.
16th November 2006: Tulloch Homes is registered as the new owner of the land, for which it paid £850,000.
21st November 2006: An e-mail written by Nicola Drummond, a planning department team leader with Highland Council, is sent to Colin MacKenzie, principal planner in the council’s planning and development service, saying the application, although contrary to the Local Plan, would "obviously" be approved.
30th January 2007: Planning permission is granted.
8th August 2007: Highland Housing Alliance is registered as the new owner of the land, having bought it for £1.35 million.

h.paterson@inverness-courier.co.uk