A little Highland Village

These are the new houses being built at Dunbeg, near Oban. A 'Highland Village' is how the Press & Journal newspaper described Dunbeg, but I'm afraid that's not how I would describe it. It's really a huge council housing scheme. At present there are another 300 houses or flats being built, with the same again in the next phase. The latest Local Development Plan is suggesting many hundreds more beside the main A85 to the north of Oban, maybe in the terrain in the foreground. The intention was to take the development over the low hills to build another 900 houses on the flat land backing Ganavan Sands, Oban's local beach, but the efforts of the Friends of Ganavan seem to have paid off and it's likely that this section will not go ahead. 

I walked along the A85 to take this picture. The view of this development from the sea is many times worse. Unfortunately the council is going ahead with such a huge number of new houses without upgrading the services and infrastructure of Oban, which is already choc-a-bloc with cars and suffering from very limited parking. I'm trying to imagine another 1,000 cars trying to park at Tesco's! But what do I know.