I’M finding it hard to justify in my mind the spending of £500,000 of taxpayer’s hard-earned cash to finance the buying of Britain’s remotest mainland pub, the Old Forge on the Knoydart Peninsula in Lochaber.

As a tax-paying contributor to this scheme I think it unlikely I will be able to benefit from my small personal investment, as I don’t fancy walking the 18 miles or making a seven-mile sea crossing to visit it. Apparently the community of just over 100 people held a consultation on this buyout. Actually only 70 bothered to take part, with almost all backing the idea – what a surprise!

READ MORE: Community gets £500k to take over 'most remote' pub on British mainland

Perhaps I should get together with a few neighbours to see if we could come up with a similar scheme to pocket a large sum of public money. I think that for about £500,000 we could probably buy more than just one local pub here.

Seriously, when thousands of young people in the Highlands have no real prospect of buying, or even renting, a decent home, is this really the best use of £500,000 of public money?

Iain Wilson
Stirling