Work on Staffin community plans set to start in summer

Work on a community-led housing, health and business development in north Skye could start next summer.

A total of seven affordable houses, a medical surgery and business space will be created in Staffin.

Staffin Community Trust (SCT) is hopeful the legal process currently under way to secure the development site, on the Stenscholl township’s common grazings, will be completed and the land will be in its ownership early in the new year.

Highland Council granted planning permission for the scheme earlier in 2018 and the Scottish Land Fund subsequently awarded a grant of £231,700 to allow SCT to buy the ground and the current Staffin Surgery from NHS Highland. SCT and its partners – the Highlands Small Communities Housing Trust (HSCHT) and Lochalsh and Skye Housing Association (LSHA) – are now working hard to secure the funding for the development, with the construction work to start hopefully by next summer. It would be the first affordable housing development in Staffin for 20 years and comes as the community has suffered a significant population decline in that time.

SCT is hopeful the new housing will help increase the Staffin Primary School roll and the community’s longterm sustainability.

The project also includes a business units building and a workshop/storage base.

SCT would buy the existing surgery – which dates back to the 1950s and is known locally as the Nurses’ Cottage – so it could be converted into an affordable home. Staffin’s district nurses lived in the building when it was first built but is no longer fit for purpose.

SCT has received nine expressions of interest in the new homes from local families and couples. Two of the properties will be owned by SCT, two by HSCHT and two by LSHA and they will be a range of mixed housing tenure.

SCT chairman Sandy Ogilvie said important progress had been made in recent months and securing the land would be a hugely significant marker for the development.

‘There is still a vast amount of hard work to do, particularly in securing the necessary capital funding, but we are heartened by the support from the community and our partners in delivering this vital development for the benefit of Staffin for decades to come,’ he said.

Staffin Community Council chairman John MacKenzie added: ‘This development will assist the stability of future generations and families, we hope this is just the beginning of more exciting projects to come.’