People living close to the proposed Inverness Campus at Beechwood have been invited to a second exhibition to view plans for Phase One of the development.

Community members interested in viewing plans and learning more about the development are invited to The Green House, Beechwood Business Park, from 1pm to 9pm on Monday, November 23 and from 10am to 9pm on Tuesday, November 24 2009.

Around 10,000 households will receive letters inviting them to attend in the next couple of days.

Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE), as owner of the land at Beechwood, submitted an outline planning application for development of the whole 215 acre site at Beechwood in April this year.

In September the Board of HIE approved expenditure over the next five years totalling £25 million on the project.

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HIE's vision for the Campus is to create a state-of-the-art mixed use development that will encourage education, research and business organisations to work collaboratively in a way that will benefit the Highland and Island economy.

A key aim of the Campus is to offer the opportunity to school leavers and mature students to remain in the Highlands for further, higher and post graduate levels of study, and attract students from other parts of the country and overseas.

Martin Johnson, HIE's area manager for the Inner Moray Firth, explains the reasons for holding a second round of exhibitions: "We submitted an outline planning application for the site at Beechwood in April after receiving widespread support for the development.

"Discussion on this application will take time, which is understandable for a development proposal of this scale that seeks to address all of our land ownership at Beechwood. However because we are keen to make progress on the initial phase we are submitting a second outline planning application for Phase One of the Academic Campus.

"We expect that a significant portion of this Phase will be delivered by 2013, bringing jobs, investment and world class research and education facilities to the city."

HIE proposes to include sports facilities, community parks and additional office and education facilities in future phases of the development.

Anyone interested in learning more about the Campus is welcome to attend the exhibitions.

(GK/BMcC)