Achi news desk-
He said half of the 30 new homes will be sold with covenants to ensure “they are not turned into holiday accommodation”.
A planning application by Dornoch community group Communities for Coul (C4C) for the golf course was approved by Highland Council in December.
A final decision on the plans is now in the hands of ministers at Holyrood after they were “called in” by the Scottish Government amid environmental concerns raised by Nature Scot.
Scottish Member of Parliament Kate Forbes is among the politicians who support the proposal.
Mr Abel Smith, who owns Coul Farm, is in ongoing discussions with the council and representatives from the Embo community regarding his proposals to build 30 new homes and establish the farms on the farm land.
He said: “The biggest problem facing East Sutherland is the continued loss of the working age population.
“There is a serious lack of affordable housing and good employment opportunities at the root of that growing crisis.
“Half of the new houses we are planning will be affordable houses and they will be sold with covenants to ensure they remain affordable in the long term and are not turned into holiday accommodation.
“Similarly, the new smallholders will not have the right to buy, ensuring that they will continue to provide homes and land for crofters into the future.
“We believe that the hundreds of job opportunities that the Coul Links golf course will create and the new housing options that we want to be able to offer can play a significant role in changing the long-term fortunes of the area.
“That can only happen if the Scottish Ministers decide, as the Highland Council has already done twice, to approve the development of a golf course at Coul Links.”
It comes after an investigative series by the Herald highlighted the “population crisis” facing parts of the Highlands with Caithness and Sutherland identified as areas of concern.
In 2020 only 61 babies were born in Sutherland, an area that has seen its population halve to 13,000 over the last 150 years.
With 16 primary schools it equates to around three children starting school and is one of the more “staggering” figures showing a rapidly declining population, says Professor David Bell, an expert on demographic change.
Mr Abel Smith’s plans were welcomed by MP for Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross, Jamie Stone.
He said: “The serious threat that the loss of the working age population poses to the viability of areas across Scotland was recognized by the Scottish Government with this year’s publication of its Action Plan to Tackling Rural Depopulation.
READ MORE:
Reversing Highland ‘crisis’ requires policymakers to ‘move heaven and earth’
Tourism push in ‘forgotten’ Highland village ‘aggressive and unfair’
Scottish Government treating Highlands as ‘cash cow’
“The issue is no more critical than in Caithness and Sutherland and it piles up multiple problems for the future provision of essential services such as schools and healthcare for an area with an increasingly skewed demographic profile.
“The lack of affordable housing for young people and families is a key issue, so the plans for these new homes and farms in Coul Farm are very welcome.
“There are no silver bullet solutions for the depopulation crisis, as the Action Plan explained.
“So when opportunities like the privately funded and environmentally sensitive Coul Links project come along, you’d think it would be completely perverse for Scottish Ministers to block them.”
Earlier this year, Liberal Democrat Mr Stone was among a cross-party group of politicians to voice support for the proposed golf course, along with former SNP Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs, Fergus Ewing MSP, Rhoda Grant, Labor MSP, and MSPs Conservative Edward Mynydd and Jamie Halcro Johnston.
More recently, former Scottish Finance Secretary, Kate Forbes, SNP MSP for Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch also gave her public support to the plans.
