Chef accuses Highland Council of ‘staggering incompetence’ over £1m plans for Caithness properties

A private chef who is looking to invest around £1 million in two properties in Caithness has accused Highland Council of “staggering incompetence” over planning delays.

David Buchanan wants to cater for North Coast 500 tourists by providing upmarket hospitality but says he is getting nowhere with the local authority and claims much-needed investment in the town is being stifled as a result.

Mr Buchanan (41) bought Blackstairs House in Wick in August 2023 and has been running a series of Secret Shebeen supper clubs there over the past six months. A former pupil of Pulteneytown Academy, he made his name as a chef to billionaires and royalty.

Along with his partner Kirsty Wybar (39), a lawyer, Mr Buchanan is seeking to open high-end rooms at the 200-year-old property with food and drink as part of the package. He needs a liquor licence to make that happen, but has been left frustrated by recurring problems over the application process.

He claims his emails to senior Highland Council officials are going largely unanswered, saying: “I’m getting nothing back.”

Mr Buchanan’s investment in Blackstairs House has so far exceeded £325,000 and he intends to develop it further as a setting for events and classes, using local contractors for renovation work.

“Our model is to bring people to the town for two, three or four days at a time by being a destination to start your North Coast 500 journey,” he explained.

“We’re not trying to open a pub. We’re just looking for the legal permissions to be able to sell intoxicating liquor. It really is that simple.

“We were hoping to be open for rooms by the beginning of April. At the rate we’re moving, it’s going to be the end of the tourist season, so we’re not going to make any money out of it this year.”

Writing to council leader Raymond Bremner in May, Mr Buchanan said: “It has taken us four months to get absolutely nowhere.”

Mr Buchanan also has plans to develop Old Bruan Kirk, near Ulbster, as a home and a venue for weddings and group events.

“We’re burning through all of our mental resilience so quickly because every single throw of the dice so far has been horrendous,” he said.

“It’s the being ignored thing that really upsets me. Grand Designs [a Channel 4 TV series about self-building projects] wants to film how we’re going to rebuild the Old Bruan Kirk and the total cost of that project alone is more than half a million pounds – probably £600,000 to £650,000, we think.

“Between those two properties we’re looking at investing a million pounds in the region and the chief executive of the council can’t even send you an email.

“It’s a travesty of incompetence. It’s just staggering.

“We’re thousands and thousands of pounds out of pocket and they just ignore your emails.”

Mr Buchanan says he started the application process in the middle of January but encountered a catalogue of problems trying to access the online portal for public services. A major stumbling block appears to centre on a timed-out application.

“They won’t cancel the old application, they won’t let us make a new one, I can’t go in and remove that thing because it says it’s still active,” he said. “We’re stuck in limbo.

“I’ve jumped through every hoop, I’ve jumped over every bar and shimmied under everything else.

“I’m just really disappointed and upset because I am trying to do good things. It’s upsetting that the council’s inaction stifles investment.”

Mr Buchanan added: “There’s a guy called Garry Cameron who works in the licensing department and he is the most helpful person I have ever encountered that works for a local authority. He understands, he explains clearly, he gives you his time, he’s responsive. And if he can’t help you, he knows where to send you to get help.

“It’s a seven-page document for the application and basically it’s got four or five pages of absolute nonsense and the other couple of pages don’t give you enough information to be able to proactively make an application.

“As a result of them not telling you what the requirements are, you have to phone them, you have to email them to ask for help, you go round in a circle. It took five calls and 10 emails to find out what the application criteria were.

“I’ve emailed the chief executive of the council, I’ve emailed Raymond Bremner. Willie Mackay [councillor for Wick and East Caithness] got on the case a couple of weeks ago and, to be fair to him, made a bit of traction.

“He got hold of somebody and then I got someone in Inverness basically saying that there had been an oversight and that they hadn’t logged my complaint internally in that office as a complaint. That has now been done.”

Mr Buchanan added: “They are underestimating the fact that I have a massive white building and I will paint on the outside whatever I so desire.

“They’ve taken fees for services that they absolutely know that they can’t provide.

“We are looking to buy the Old Bruan Kirk at Ulbster. We put a pre-planning application in for that at the beginning of November 2023.

“You’re meant to get a response within four weeks. We eventually got the written reply from them on April 7.

“You’re talking upwards of six or seven grand to get that far and you’re meant to get a response within 30 days.

“We got the pre-planning approved. However, they didn’t like our woodburner as a secondary backup heat source.

“And the other thing they didn’t like was my eco-friendly wind turbine, although the guy we’re buying the plot from previously had planning which has lapsed – he was allowed the exact same turbine there.”

Mr Buchanan added: “We’ve had local folk saying great things and ultimately they look at you and say, ‘Why aren’t they helping you?’

“If they took that active application off the portal today we could start back tomorrow and on the 28th day you could be sure I’d be on the phone to them for answers. They’re ignoring everything thus far.”

Highland Council has been approached for comment.

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