A new report shows urgent need for new housing in a north Skye community which hopes new jobs are on the way, but where the last affordable homes were built 15 years ago.
The study commissioned by the Staffin Community Trust has found Staffin is now "dominated" by older households while 18 per cent of properties are now holiday homes, compared to the Highland average of 5.7 per cent.
There is concern locally major housing developments on the island have been concentrated in larger settlements like Portree and Broadford, while the primary school roll in Staffin has halved to 15 in recent years. The Staffin Trust is working in partnership with the Skye Sea Harvest company to develop its local harbour, the Staffin Slipway, with a seafood processing facility which could create 40-plus much-needed jobs. But it will increase housing demand.
Staffin Trust chairman Donald MacDonald said: "Housing has been on the agenda for some years but attention was diverted due to a significant private development that was proposed that would have seen seven new homes built.
"Now that project has failed to achieve planning permission the trust can re-focus its attention on housing. It is essential people continue to register Staffin as their first choice for homes and not to give in to pressure to move to Portree or elsewhere."
Lachie MacDonald, chief executive of Lochalsh and Skye Housing Association, said: "We are happy to attend the proposed meeting to discuss the housing concerns of the trust."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article