Ardross looks for conditions on construction of new distillery
RESIDENTS in Easter Ross are calling on Highland Council to apply conditions to control deliveries and construction traffic at a new distillery near Alness.
Ardross Investments is constructing a new £18million whisky distillery at the former steading of Ardross Mains Farms and it is expected to open early this year. But the company has also lodged a further planning application to convert a three storey-tenement on the site into a gin still house as part of the development on the 50-acre site.
Last month Ardross Community Council considered the application at a public meeting and in a letter to council planners, John Edmondson, secretary of the council said in general the community was supportive of the application adding that it was difficult to separate the application for the gin still from the whisky distillery which is already approved and at an advanced stage of construction.
However Mr Edmonson, on behalf of the council, (Ed NOTE: can you ensure that the line that he is speaking on behalf of the council is not subbed out) stated the amount of construction traffic, discourteousness of drivers driving in convoy, parking and poor state of the public road, and hold ups because of HGV deliveries had caused a lot of inconvenience and frustration to residents and businesses in the area.
He said: “We don’t have any agenda and we want this scheme to go ahead. But the area has has been subject to a a few large civil engineering projects in recent times including the distillery and the Coire na Cloiche windfarm.
“The Glasa hydro scheme is due to commence in April and all the traffic for that will share the same single track road as the distillery.
“So we are trying to emphasise that the community should be involved with the developers of both this application and the hydro scheme.
“We were not kept in the loop during the construction of the distillery and were not consulted over the way it was intended by the planning conditions.
“A traffic management plan was approved for the construction of the distillery but we are convinced it didn’t comply with the planning conditions.”
“The traffic management could have been better handled if there was more communication.
“But what’s done is done. Highland Council were contrite and what we are trying to do now is ensure that we don’t have the same problems again during the construction of the gin still and the hydro scheme.”
The building where the gin still will be located provided accommodation for farm workers and is thought to have originally housed Irish workers who built Ardross Castle. The still application is under consideration by council planners.
