Call for £3m to turn Inverness's Old Town into visitor attraction
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Property developer Charlie Barbour, owner of the White House cocktail bar and bistro in Union Street, said the money would bring improvements that would help increase footfall and, in turn, improve the economic health of the whole city centre.
Making the call in today’s Inverness Courier as part of a broad vision of small changes, he believes it could make a big difference, with the £3 million – £1 million per year over three years – being a “relatively modest” sum for the council to invest for what could be major continuing returns.
“We all recognise that the Old Town is in a fairly neglected state at the moment and I think the way to combat that is for the council to regard it as a visitor attraction in the same way as the castle is or the river is, as part of the historic core of the city,” he said.
“If you look at the millions being spent on the castle or the town house, or that have been spent improving the river, I don’t think the Old Town is any different.”
Asked why the council should be expected to invest public money to help improve the lot of private business owners, he said the distinction was “short sighted”.
A more popular Old Town with more successful businesses would mean an increase in jobs, greater attractiveness to potential new investors and more rates being paid to the council, he said.
He expected business owners to ultimately take the lead in the area’s upkeep.
“The investment I would be looking for from the council would essentially be for start-up,” he said.
“It would be to bring buildings up to a standard, to create communal bin stores to get commercial wheelie bins off the streets, to invest in hanging baskets and tackle the seagull problem.
“As part of that investment, businesses could be required to sign up to a service charge agreement, paying for upkeep after that standard has been set.”
The council’s Inverness city manager David Haas refused to be drawn directly on Mr Barbour’s cash call but said the local authority was already working hard across the city centre, including working in partnership with the private sector.
Pointing to the new action plan agreed for the Victorian Market earlier this week, he said: “That clearly shows the council is leading the way in terms of making sure its own assets are delivering for traders in the market and also for the wider city business community, with a stakeholder group that will have market traders and key representatives from the business community as part of it, along with councillors.”
He also pointed out that the £3 million Townscape Heritage Project bringing improvements to Academy Street is being delivered in partnership with the private sector.
He added: “The council is keen to work with all partners from all sectors to bring improvements across the board.”
