Imeraval phase 1, 2 & 3
McKerral Road, Port Ellen, Islay
West Highland Housing Association
The case for housing in Port Ellen has been strong in recent years with a surge of new employment and economic activity. The housing at Imeraval has been proposed by West Highland Housing Association to further meet local housing demand. The first three phases of new housing at Port Ellen are complete and now let or sold. Phase 1 was a development of 26 houses, Phase 2 had 16 units and Phase 3, a total of 10. Built on a greenfield site just to the left-hand edge of the village. There was an initial masterplan produced for the area which included a mix of affordable homes and larger private plots closer into the village. It was initially designed as off-site fabrication to be shipped over from N Ireland, but the cost and logistics proved too difficult at that time. We have since kept an open mind about examining if this style of construction could work for remote sites like Islay. We had produced several schemes on Islay by this point and we understood the vernacular architectural style that belonged to Islay. Our redesigned houses were both more economical to build and run as well as being more spacious and brighter.
These new houses are a mixture of shared equity sale or affordable rent. WHHA will use the New Supply Shared Equity scheme which gives priority to the over 60’s, veterans, disabled persons, widows and similar disadvantaged groups. WHH have set ambitious targets to help achieve their EESSH2 targets which CMA are involved in helping to deliver these ambitious aims. They have secured funding from the Scottish Government’s Decarbonisation fund which was used to make sure we had carbon free heating.
