STATEMENT:

Organic Sea Harvest granted permission for Balmaqueen site

19th August 2024

Organic Sea Harvest has today been granted planning permission for a third farm site at Balmaqueen in the North East of Skye.

Applications for sites at Balmaqueen and Flodigarry were refused by the Highland Council’s North Planning Applications Committee in August, but the applications were brought to the full council for consideration today after more than 20 councillors supported a Notice of Amendment.

Highland Council voted 25-23 in favour of the Balmaqueen application after earlier rejecting the Flodigarry application by 28 votes to 22.

Alex MacInnes, OSH director and co-founder, said:

“We will now reflect on both decisions and listen to the comments that were made by some of the council members present.

“Some of these comments were quite difficult to accept, bearing in mind what we have presented and that we have been farming organic salmon on Skye for five years now.

“I am delighted that Organic Sea Harvest has been granted permission for the Balmaqueen site, bringing the total number of sites to three, which means that we can now move on. However, we still want that fourth farm and this will be something that we will discuss in the months to come.”

RECENT