The man behind a nursery plan for Douglas said he has “struggled to get his head around” a fresh setback but will keep going.
Proposals to develop a nursery and start-up business hub at Douglas House have suffered a further blow as an appeal against its refusal was dismissed by the Scottish Government.
The local authority has invested time and money in the building that was transferred from council ownership after a need for a nursery was identified.
However, councillors over-ruled officers who had been working on the plan by throwing the application out in November for traffic reasons.
Despite the Scottish Government’s dismissal of the appeal, the man behind the initiative, chief executive of Factory Skatepark Derek Marshall, said the plan for a 72-place nursery wasn’t “dead in the water yet”.
He pledged to submit an amended planning application taking into account the traffic issues raised.
“It just seems crazy,” he said. “This plan all stemmed from the council identifying the need for a nursery.
“We worked with the council on this.
“They did an asset transfer for us to build the nursery.
“We’ve already spent £20,000 on site, there has been substantial investment from us and from the council in clearing the site.
“The planning officers recommended the plans and then the councillors overruled their own officers.
“We are looking at bringing 30 new jobs and £2.5 million investment to build the nursery and start-up hub.”
Mr Marshall said traffic generated by the site would be no worse than before.
Factory Skatepark will not have to pay to resubmit the plans, but the project has already suffered six months of delays, with another six expected for the new application.
Mr Marshall said: “We can resubmit the application but we have spent a lot of money getting to this stage.
“It’s disappointing now, but the plan is not dead in the water.”
It is likely to be another couple of months before the plans are resubmitted to the city council.
The local authority refused to reveal how much time and money it had invested in the project, whether it still backs the project or if it intends to return the land to the public.
A spokesperson said: “Any decision on how to respond to the Scottish Government’s decision is one for the applicant.”