Battle for solar power lights at historic Grantown church enters final stage
An application has now been lodged for Listed Building Consent for the installation of solar PV panels on Grantown’s Inverallan Church.
The bid is the last planning hurdle to overcome to allow work to start on the Inverallan 20/20 project.
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This would see the church remain as a place of worship but also become a community hub.
Members of Highland Council’s Planning Review Body recently overturned a contentious decision by their officers in November, last year, and granted alterations and installation of in-roof solar panels on the roof of the Category B listed kirk.
The applicants still need to obtain Listed Building Consent and the government agency Historic Environment Scotland could still have a say in this.
But it is hoped that HES will not object to the project which elders have said is vital for the historic church’s survival by cutting huge heating bills.
The planning submission is the same as that put in and now approved by the local authority.
It is nearly a decade since church leaders came forward with the £1.1 million project to put Inverallan Church at the heart of Grantown by creating community facilities including meeting rooms, activity space, toilets and a social enterprise cafe.
