News / SLAP bids for major housing plan
OUTLINE plans to turn half of Staney Hill into new housing for Lerwick are up for public discussion over the next two weeks.
Shetland Charitable Trust’s property arm SLAP hopes to sell land above the Clickimin Leisure Complex to Hjaltland Housing Association to build social housing.
The company purchased the land several years ago from the Nicolson Estate with this in mind, but Shetland Islands Council has it earmarked for education in its local plan.
Last week SLAP agreed in principle to sell adjacent land at Clickimin to the council to build the hostel for the new Anderson High School.
Now it has appointed Edinburgh-based planning consultant Alan Farningham to organise a public consultation on zoning the land for housing.
Farningham will be meeting local planning staff and Lerwick community council on Monday to discuss the proposals, ahead of an all-day public consultation in the Clickimin Leisure Complex on 12 March.
“There is no detailed plan at this moment in time, we are looking to apply for planning permission in principle to develop housing on the land,” he said.
The consultant has sent out leaflets outlining the plans to local residents inviting as many people as possible to attend the Clickimin event.
Comments made at the event will be collated into a report that will be submitted along with any planning application.
Lerwick community council chairman Jim Anderson said he welcomed any plans to build more housing in the town.
Anderson said that for the past 20 years Lerwick had seen its population fall steadily as the council approved new building in dormitory areas like Gulberwick and Tingwall.
“It’s a false policy that prohibits people from staying where they want to stay and it’s not delivering what it’s designed to deliver, which is more folk living in the more remote areas,” he said.
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