8:21 am, September 29, 2026
The boss of a family-run used car dealership has accused a local council of trying to force him out of business amid an ongoing licensing dispute.
Angus MacKillip has run Horsepower Cars in Culloden since 2015 but recent times have been dominated by an increasingly bitter fight with Highland Council.
The local authority rejected his application to renew his second-hand vehicle dealer licence earlier this year, citing two outstanding planning appeals as well as other objections the retailer was not initially aware of.
MacKillip says that the business – which operates on an appointment-only basis – has never previously had a licence renewal refused and has accused the council of ‘victimising’ him.
The development is the latest step, following a long-running planning row over the land next to MacKillip’s home, from which Horsepower Cars operates.
Highland Council previously refused his application for a Certificate of Lawful Existing Use and issued an enforcement notice ordering the business to close.
MacKillip appealed both decisions to the Scottish Government’s Planning and Environment Appeals Division (DPEA) but was only partially succesful.
The DPEA did find that the storage and sale of vehicles on the land covered by the notice amounted to a breach of planning control but allowed the dealership to continue operating from the northern part of the site.
MacKillip, who has been a licensed car dealer since 1991, has now accused councillors of utting pressure on the council’s planning department to close Horsepower Cars.
‘At least two councillors have been pressuring the Highland Council planning department to close our business,’ he told the Inverness Courier.
‘We were a bit taken aback by it – normally for someone to lose a licence, we need to do something wrong.
‘I need to be an unfit person, have done something dodgy, that wasn’t suitable, but we’ve done nothing.’
MacKillip says he only discovered there were objections to his licence renewal after contacting the council to ask why the application had not been dealt with.
‘We’ve been sitting there for four months and there’s objections sitting in the background on their system and I don’t know a thing about them and I’m thinking, well, where’s my licence?’ he said.
‘If I hadn’t asked, what would happen?’
The objections mean MacKillip will now have to appear before Highland Council’s licensing committee on October 27.
MacKillop believes the dispute stems from complaints made about a garage he built on his land in 2024.
He said he was unsure what he would be facing at the hearing and claimed he had not been given the opportunity to respond to the objections.
‘Am I going to get a licence? Are they going to go away and hang me out to dry, my company, my business?’ he said.
‘We haven’t been able to give any submissions because we don’t know what we’re up against – it’s just deeply unfair, the whole situation.’
In response to the comments, Highland Council said its planning department was was assessing the licence applications to establish whether the dealership’s use of the premises was lawful.
A spokesman for the authority said: ‘There are two pending second-hand vehicle dealers licence applications that were submitted in April 2026.
‘One is a renewal application for Reduit House and one is for the grant of a new licence for Reduit Lodge. Both applications are subject to a nine-month determination period.
‘The renewal application was submitted timeously which means that the applicant can still operate from Reduit House whilst the renewal application is being determined.
‘As there are objections to both the licence applications, they will require to go to a hearing before the Highland licensing committee in due course.
‘Planning are consulted on all second-hand vehicle dealer licences. The planning service is currently assessing the license applications against the recently decided planning appeal decisions to determine whether the use of the premises for that purpose would be lawful.’