This follows the news that former RAF Kinloss married quarters which have been standing empty for years, have finally been put on the market.

Local councillor, Jeff Hamilton, welcomed the news that the Kinloss Park Estate, which once housed officers from the nearby base and their families, had been put on the market last week by surveyors, Graham and Sibbald. It is being offered as a development opportunity for offers in excess of £1.5 million.

However, one of the conditions of sale is that the developer must undertake to make sure the estate is connected to its own sewer and water mains, and provide such a system that other MoD housing at Kinloss can be connected up, should that situation arise.

Chairman of the Findhorn and Kinloss Community Council, Rick Walker, who lives nearby, said that he thought it was a sensible decision, one that in the future would save the MoD time and cash.

There are currently three other estates outside the wire at Kinloss - Northside, which is on the same side as the camp, Southside, which is located on a large site opposite the main gates and Burnside, a small estate, traditionally used by officers, which is behind Kinloss Park.

"At some point some of these houses are going to be sold off," said Mr Walker. "The Southside estate is already standing empty, because it is surplus to requirements. They can't just have houses standing there empty. Decisions will have to be made."

Meantime, Mr Hamilton, who lives in Kinloss, said local people would welcome the news that the boarded-up estate at Kinloss Park might be getting a new lease of life, with a number of developers likely to show an interest in the homes.

"These houses were placed on the market about three years ago and were then withdrawn," he said. "I believe this was because of infrastructure problems. At that time there was quite a bit of interest shown by developers. I would imagine the interest will still be there. I think the residents of Kinloss Village will be pleased to see something happening in this area as the houses which are boarded up and are a bit of an eyesore, despite the fact that some maintenance is being carried out by Defence Estates.

Defence Estates are the estate agency arm of the Ministry of Defence, responsible for housing. Mr Hamilton added that maintenance costs were also of concern as they were an unecessary drain on the public purse.

The Kinloss Park estate, which includes18 detached houses, is being sold as a job lot along with Kinloss House, a Victorian mansion which was more recently used as a children's playgroup. Also included in the 9.81 acres site are outbuildings, one of which previously housed the station's thrift shop before it moved to The Hive.

"This represents an important sale in terms of its impact on the village as a whole," said Douglas Mowat from Graham and Sibbald's Inverness office. "We expect that there will be interest from developers and investors who may wish to refurbish the existing properties and redevelop other areas of the site. The package would lend itself to a mixed use development."

The accommodation was designated as surplus to MOD requirements about four years ago and it was thought that the houses would be sold individually to the general public, which created a lot of interest.

However, the sale was stalled following problems with transfer of sewage and drainage pipes which runs via a system at RAF Kinloss to a civilian system. The sewage treatment plant at Kinloss was operating at capacity at the time, and no other solution was found. It is now a condition of the sale that any potential purchaser must provide new water mains and sewage treatment facilities.

"It is a material condition of the sale that the purchaser will at their own expense, install new mains water and drainage supplies to all properties on the site," states the schedule. "In addition, the new connections to the mains supplies will be required to be of such capacity and specification as to allow for connection to additional properties owned by MOD in that area."

The "Forres Gazette" asked Defence Estates why the estate would need to be connected to other MoD Properties, following speculation that they could be about to sell-off other homes, such as the Southside patch which has been slowly emptied of MoD families.

DE project manager, Alex Neill said they had not been instructed to dispose of property at Kinloss other than the Kinloss House and Kinloss Park Estate, but said the houses might need to be disconnected from the station in the distant future.

"I want this sale to deliver new water and drainage infrastructure, put in place to allow the estate to be disconnected from the station water and drainage system" he said, "and for it to be configured in such a way and of sufficient capacity so that other MoD Estates in the vicinity also served by the stations infrastructure could in the future, either if MoD wished to do so directly or as part of a disposal, be disconnected and new adopted services put in place to join on to those already put in place for Kinloss Park."

Meantime, Mr Hamilton welcomed the fact that the developer would have to install separate drainage and sewage facilities, which might prevent clogging up the already over-burdened system at Kinloss.

"Obviously any proposed development would be the subject of a planning application," added Mr Hamilton. "Therefore I cannot comment on specifics, but one thing that has to be taken into consideration is that the Kinloss sewage treatment plant is running with no spare capacity, according to Scottish Water."

He said any application might require the upgrade of this facility. This would mean other projects in Findhorn and Kinloss, currently on hold while the facility waits for upgrade, might get the go-ahead.

"In all ways, I think that this sale is a very positive move," he said, "and I look forward to hearing what any future developer has in mind."

Scottish Water's Highlands and Islands spokesman, Jason Rose, said that it was standard for any developer to have to put in water pipes or sewer pipes to connect to their systems.

"The water mains and sewers in Kinloss Park are not Scottish Water's – they are maintained by Thames Water Nevis who are contracted by the MoD," he said. "But ultimately, like all other parts of Kinloss, including the RAF base, the waste water drains to our treatment works."

He added that Scottish Water expected to carry out works at the Kinloss plant in the future to upgrade the system, but he explained that the capacity of the treatment works at Kinloss had nothing to do with how long the houses had been sitting empty.

"The houses at Kinloss Park have always drained to the works so there has been no issue about capacity," he said. "The issue of upgrading the pipes within Kinloss Park is a matter between the MoD and any buyer. Any developer looking for us to adopt the water mains and sewers within Kinloss Park would have to provide very detailed information before we could consider whether everything was up to our specifications."

He added that he had no idea why the Ministry of Defence would want the system, which connects other married quarters, upgraded.

Kinloss Park is a cul-de-sac of 18 detached three-bedroom houses, all of which have double glazing, central heating, a garage and spacious garden areas. Kinloss Park is a detached three story and attic Victorian house built in 1887. The grounds are attractively laid out with potential for further development in the grounds and outbuildings.

t.mclaren@forres-gazette.co.uk

Printer friendly version

Email this article to a friend

Bookmark this

---