The Highland Council has deferred a decision on a planning application for 16 new homes at the site of Viewhill in Inverness to allow the developer to ensure the house designs “better reflect the Highland context and conservation”.

Kirkwood Homes had planned to develop the homes on a site within the boundary of the Culloden (Battlefield) Conservation Area and Historic Environment Scotland’s Inventory of Historic Battlefields.

Members of the local authority’s south planning applications committee approved a motion by Councillor Andrew Jarvie and seconded by Councillor Carolyn Caddick (both Inverness South Ward Members) to: “….defer the application for houses to give the developer an opportunity to revisit the finishes and the house designs to better reflect the Highland context and conservation area, in particular with regard to the use of external materials; proportions of the roofs to walls and external details”.

Regarding the application for ‘Amendment to road layout and drainage infrastructure’, councillors agreed to approve and grant the application subject to a suspensive condition preventing commencement of the road works until planning permission for the housing design has been granted.

Any future applications on the development proposal would come back to the council’s south planning applications committee for consideration.