Senior councillors left disappointed after two Highland Council bids for Levelling Up funding fail
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Senior councillors have expressed their disappointment after it emerged that two bids by Highland Council for Levelling Up funding were unsuccessful.
Bids were submitted for improvements to the North Coast 500 from Achnasheen to Kishorn and Ullapool to Bettyhill as well as for the NC500 Green Tourism Project. A further bid was also submitted for Portree harbour and village regeneration.
The council’s economy and infrastructure chairman, Councillor Ken Gowans, said: “We are very disappointed with the news that the bids we submitted for the redevelopment of Portree Harbour and the improvements to the NC500 route have been unsuccessful.
“Both projects are important for supporting the local economy and delivering a quality infrastructure and environment that not only benefits the local communities but the wider Highlands as well. The UK government has confirmed that they will provide us with written feedback on the unsuccessful applications.”
The chairman of the Isle of Skye and Raasay committee also expressed his dismay, saying: "It is even more disappointing to see the lack of support for rural authorities like Highland and of course island communities.
“A huge amount of work was done locally on Skye and also at council level to submit what looked like a very strong and very comprehensive bid that would have transformed Portree Harbour and also supported the wider Skye economy and of course, the community groups who were an integral part of putting the bid together are also really disappointed by the news.
"The council will carefully go through the feedback about the bid and then discussions can take place to look at how the work done to submit the strong bid can still be used to improve things going forward.”
