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Bus and cycle lanes for Millburn Road? Highland Council launches Christmas consultation on active travel





This cycle lane was removed but now the council are asking about reinstalling it as well as a bus lane along Millburn Road. Picture Gary Anthony.
This cycle lane was removed but now the council are asking about reinstalling it as well as a bus lane along Millburn Road. Picture Gary Anthony.

Highland Council has launched another consultation on active travel and public transport towards the city centre – this time for the “Millburn Corridor” which runs from the Raigmore Interchange to the Eastgate Shopping Centre.

The consultation has already been criticised because much of it will take place over the festive period, with a closing date for comments of January 9, which led Stewart Nicol, the chief executive of Inverness Chamber of Commerce, to voice concerns.

The latest consultation comes as businesses continue to vent their fury over engagement over proposals to significantly curtail traffic volumes in Academy Street.

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One trader called those proposals a “fraud” after a totally new scheme was put to councillors after businesses and the public had given their views on a much less restrictive scheme.

Under the now preferred option for the city centre artery – which will be subject to further consultation – traffic levels there could be cut by as much as 75 per cent, leading to fears about the potential impact on trade.

The Millburn Corridor is one of 11 projects for which Highland Council has been awarded funding through the Scottish Government’s Bus Partnership Fund (BPF) and the Places for Everyone scheme as it looks to “develop walking, wheeling and cycling improvements”.

A total of 14 basic options have been set out as possibilities, with a further eight possible permutations that involve cycle lanes and dedicated bus lanes to encourage more active travel and reduce bus journey times.

Officers suggest the changes could also reduce private car usage in the area by 20 per cent.

According to the consultation which is being run by Stantec: “The aim of this study is to develop transformational options to improve transport connections along the corridor, with a focus on active travel (walking, wheeling and cycling) and public transport (bus) connections.

“The study aims to identify those options which can encourage a modal shift to walking, wheeling, cycling and travelling by public transport and provide transformational change which reflects a range of policies including the Scottish Government’s commitment to reduce car vehicle kilometres by 20 per cent by 2030.”

There are three sections within the project’s sphere, each with its own specific set of options based on available space: Crown Road to Eastgate; Eastgate entrance to Morrisons; and Morrisons to Raigmore Interchange.

Across the piece options range from a shared use cycle and pedestrian path with full or staggered bus lanes to two-way cycle paths separated from pedestrians alongside bus lanes, both combined with two-way traffic.

At the very least, from the Raigmore Interchange to the entrance to the Eastgate Shopping Centre there would be new pedestrian footways, two-way cycle traffic, a bus lane and two-way traffic.

Mr Nicol said: “There is a consultation out and I think the timing could have been better.

“Obviously for a big chunk of that time businesses will be focussed on Christmas retail activities, which is really important for city centre traders in particular.

“Having said that, I would urge people to make use of the consultation to look at what the proposals are and to make comments and give feedback on them.

“I think there are a couple of things here – all of us want the best for Inverness city centre and there are competing aspirations, there are competing challenges.

“The way through that is by having full and robust dialogue and we cannot ignore, and we have to work all of that through, to reach a conclusion that everyone can buy into as best they can.

“That is achieved by proper engagement and dialogue and a recognition of the competing pressures to arrive at a consensus that meets the needs of all of us who live and work or visit the city of Inverness, which ultimately is the end result that we are all seeking.”

The current cycle lane on Millburn Road, heading from the Raigmore Interchange towards the city centre, was lengthened during the Covid pandemic in a bid to encourage more active travel.

As a result large tailbacks grew all the way to the interchange and at the first opportunity councillors on the Inverness area committee voted to drastically shorten the lane again, to restore normal journey times.

So far the launch of the consultation has not been much publicised.

A reference is made online to a public consultation event due to be held next Wednesday (December 14) but without times attached or details of where it will take place.

The Courier asked the council to provide these details but it had not responded by the time we went to press yesterday.

Click here for more details of the full range of changes being considered are available online at https://bit.ly/3VUH45Z and https://bit.ly/3Fs5JcV


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