Highland Council plans restricting time blue badge holders can park in disabled places as Inverness BID alerts businesses over changes to the Fisherman’s Hut car park, Castle Street, Academy Street, the Longman and others
Highland Council plans limiting the time blue badge holders can park for in disabled places as Inverness BID alerts businesses over the proposals that could “impact traffic flow and parking” in the city centre.
The Traffic Regulation order or TRO was published on February 24 and the Inverness Business Improvement District felt that it is necessary to send out news of the “important update”.
The changes could impact areas that could lead to disputes such as the Fisherman’s Hut car park, Castle Street, Academy Street, the Longman and others areas.
Among the points highlighted by the city centre business organisation are the proposed changes to disabled parking bays by limiting parking to one to two hours.
The Inverness Castle project will potentially see changes brought to Castle Street which would have pay and display limits of 10 minutes only as the council looks to enable pick-up and drop-off places.
In the TRO the council said it wants to offer “more frequent access to disabled parking bays by adding time restrictions” while also adding to the number of disabled bays”.
It would also provide an additional taxi rank on Station Lane, remove a section of pay and display bays on Castle Street for drop off and pick up for the new visitor centre at Inverness Castle.
Introduce shared pay and display or permit holder bays on Huntly, Balnain and Greig Streets, new waiting restrictions and disabled bays along Island Bank Road for the Riverside Way project and additional disabled and permit parking bays at Fishermans Car Park.
The range of the changes can be seen on the map above while the TRO can be read in full (below) which includes maps of the changes across the city including the Longman, Telford Roundabout and others.
BID said in its email to businesses: “We have been advised that the above draft Traffic Road Order (TRO) was published on February 24 which may impact traffic flow and parking arrangements within and around the city centre, as well the wider city (and Highland).
“Included in the draft TRO for the city centre area are proposed changes to disabled parking bays (limiting parking for 1-2 hours only) and changes to Castle Street for example, with Pay and Display limits of 10 minutes.
“We encourage all local businesses and stakeholders to review the details of the draft order to understand any potential changes and to lodge any representations (support or objections) within the consultation period and no later than 26th March 2025:
“The closing date for responding to the statutory consultation (extended from the published date of 17th March) is now 26th March 2025. This has been agreed to allow businesses, who may not be aware and who did not receive a notification letter, time to consider the plans.
“Responses either in support (stating reasons) or to object (stating competent grounds) can be sent to: parking@highland.gov.uk”.
