Highland Council’s economic analysis of Academy Street revamp dubbed ‘a work of fiction’ with ‘very little justification’
“A work of fiction… a bit abstract… very little justification… indicative at best…” – Highland Council’s economic impact assessment for the Academy Street revamp receives a damning expert analysis.
Tom Millard, the associate director of AMION Consulting, was asked to undertake a technical analysis of the economic impact assessment and he explained how the brief provided to the company that did the work was “fundamentally flawed”.
That left a number of businesses at the BID Breakfast meeting this morning feeling vindicated after their warnings about the proposals went unheeded by administration councillors and officials.
It was the first opportunity to debate the Academy Street proposals since the Eastgate Centre won its judicial review against the council with Lord Sandison labelling the consultation as “unlawful”.
Yet there were no council officials at the gathering and just three councillors turned up – Duncan Macpherson and Isabelle Mackenzie from the opposition while deputy Inverness Provost Morven Reid was the only administration member to show face.
What they heard would have made uncomfortable listening for the architects of the proposal to slash vehicle movements to 2000 a day and divide the street in two ending its role as thoroughfare.
Mr Millard referred to how the original economic assessment relied on only positive case studies, did not include the experience of Aberdeen, and failed to engage businesses as well as some parts being dubbed “fictional”.
Mr Millard said: “The basis for calling part of the assessment ‘fictional’ was the part of the economic impact assessment concerning estimates for local projections on footfall and spend - that component - because it is really a local economic system, it didn’t really take into account local factors.
“One aspect of it is finding case studies that are more representative and you wouldn't expect all of them to be positive, you would expect some to be negative and I think hearing what's happening in Aberdeen is an example of a scheme that has had some similarities that have seen actual negative results in a short space of time, so take into account examples like that.
“I think another element is to actually engage with businesses and say - ‘well, how would this affect you?’ I think that's a step that hasn't been taken.
“But I think if there were to be a new stand-alone rerun of the local economic impact sessions then it should be ground-up, based on better case study examples and engagement with businesses as to how this would operate.’
Cru Holdings’ Scott Murray, who operates several city centre businesses, was among those who felt vindicated by what he heard after years of frustration but he repeated that the Inverness business community is ready to engage with the council.
“There are people within local government that have been given tasks to do, and targets to hit and they are potentially looking at achieving those targets regardless of what happens elsewhere.
“We really need them to take a much more holistic approach to getting the job done and I think if you take that holistic approach, you get much more support and actually get a lot more activity.
“If you choose to engage with local businesses, you're getting an incredible amount of experience and education and tens or even hundreds of millions of pounds worth of business are being run by these people and you're getting that experience for free just for asking - so why wouldn’t you ask?
“Now we have just heard about a report commissioned by BID and there's been another report commissioned by the council to try and deal with the same thing - that is an awful lot of money coming out of the public pocket from the council's point of view.
“But they [the council] were told this before, experienced people told them this for free a long time ago and so, one of two things has happened either the council has chosen not to listen or the people in post are not qualified to make those decisions.
“Either of those things are likely, either one of those things are unacceptable in this day and age for the public sector.”
