(298)  LOCAL HEROES AND AUTHENTIC COLOURS IN PENNAN

 

The Scottish Executive has ordered Brenda Kutchinsky, owner of the Pennan Inn in Aberdeenshire, to repaint the walls of her property with whitewash, replacing the aqua blue with which she had covered the walls in the summer of 2003.  This had led to complaints from visitors to Pennan, most of whom come because the coastal village nestling at the foot of cliffs overlooking the Moray Firth, and its inn and phonebox, featured strongly in the 1980s film, Local Hero.  Mrs Kutchinsky failed to obtain planning permission from Aberdeenshire Council before carrying out her renovation, and an appeal for retrospective permission, first to the council and then to the Executive, has failed.  Mrs Kutchinsky, who complains about being forced to live in a film set, points out that historically Pennan’s houses were red (because of the stone used to build them) and that before the film the inn was painted aqua-marine.  The Scottish Executive takes the view, however, that blue is entirely out of context with the established colour of the area”.

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