Eco village 'killed off by millionaire laird'

Escape Lodge was recently granted planning permission subject to conditions for an eco-lodge to provide 20 guests with "immersion in nature" in remote Dundonnell Glen, near Ullapool.

Company owner Becky Thomson was also given permission to recreate traditional thatched houses similar to those abandoned in the Highland Clearances.

The site borders the 6,000-acre Eilean Darach Estate in Dundonnell, which was owned by software millionaire Gordon Crawford but recently handed over to his son Nicholas, who lives in Jersey.

Gordon Crawford, 56, was once rated the 12th-richest person in Britain and collected more than 76 million from the sale of his London Bridge Software group to a US buyer in 2004.

Last year, the estate opposed the plans along with lyricist Sir Tim Rice, who owns another nearby estate, and more than 20 other people.

Escape Lodge has now been served with an interim interdict raised at the Court of Session by Eilean Darach.

Ms Thomson said it would cost her company thousands of pounds to defend the action and is faced with no choice but to abandon the project.

A notice on the eco-lodge website yesterday said: "We are very sorry if you were looking forward to staying at Escape Lodge.

"Despite receiving democratically decided planning permission, this project has been shut down by the legal action taken by a neighbouring landowner."

Ms Thomson said: "It's all over for the Escape Lodge development and that was what Gordon Crawford originally told me he would do his best to achieve."

The estate claims the plans could affect its water supply, but Ms Thomson said that factor was taken into account by planning officials who required changes to the proposal before Highland Council planning officials gave their approval.

Ms Thomson said she will try to discuss an alternative plan that would be suitable to all parties but is "sceptical" it would be accepted.

Gordon Crawford said yesterday the estate lodge and fishing business, which employs four people, has a "marginal" water supply.

"As far as we are concerned, these proposals will turn what is a marginal supply into an inadequate supply."

He said Ms Thomson has a right to go back to court to challenge the estate's consulting engineers' findings and discuss whether the situation can be resolved.

"These are discussions which she would not have before and therefore I took the only legal steps open to me to force that dialogue," Mr Crawford said.

"This a traditional business going on for over 100 years.You can't just build something with no regard for the infrastructure that supports other peoples' interests."

Rob Gibson, SNP MSP for Caithness, Sutherland and Ross, said the court action is unreasonable.

"I cannot regard that move as in any way being civil or reasonable given the expense likely to incurred for Escape Lodge to challenge the interdict," he said.