If the question remains unanswered why recent or planned developments in our city cannot match the quality of those in other British and European towns, it is because those who have the power to address the problem are the ones creating it.

Bankers give money to developers who have their plans drawn and signed by architects and approved by the planning system.

In other words, everybody benefits from the process (bankers, developers, architects, planners, contractors and politicians), so it is no surprise that nobody is interested in killing the goose that lays the golden eggs.

And as long as they can keep getting a profit out of it, things won't change.

But there is a way to control this. There is a Local Plan in force to prevent it, but it is common practice to ignore it.

Recent development in our city is the result of the culture of paying expensive prices for things that are actually cheap to develop. Sadly, they look cheap too.

Jacobite Cruises has just proven, with its choice of architect for its coming Loch Ness harbour and visitor facilities, that when quality and design matters, it cannot be sourced locally.

Non-Highland talent produces the likes of Maggie's Centre or Culloden Battlefield Centre, while local talent produces the Highland Archive Centre.

Perhaps local firms are too busy self-promoting the so-called "Highland architecture", which is used by planners and politicians to promote the sort of amusement park the Highlands have turned into, where everything is made for the enjoyment of the visitor but forgets the real people who live and work here throughout the year.

In failing to voice their concerns and say no to developers, architects and planners are acting as accomplices - and both also fail to comply with the social responsibility their role demands.

As such they should be banned from practising, since the public has no means to vote them down as it has with politicians.

Why bother launching a design review panel, no matter how necessary, when the first thing architects and planners dismiss at the call of "master developer" is actually design?

To start addressing the issue of the poorly designed environment of the capital of the Highlands, a change of attitude is needed from the professional bodies involved with the construction industry.

Ivan Flores Clemente, Communication Designer & Architectural Assistant, HRI Architects LLP / HRI Design, 17 Queensgate, Inverness.

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