Inverness councillors agreed to integrate two ambitious visions for the city paving the way for extensive consultation that could herald the biggest changes in generations
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Two ambitious visions for Inverness have been combined after city councillors agreed to integrate strategies produced by Highland Council and the Inverness Futures Group.
The plans contained in the twin documents could herald the biggest changes seen in the city for many decades as they aim to transform the city’s fortunes by ramping up business, travel, infrastructure to a “create a great place to live, work and study.”
The key details that were agreed were to undertake an extensive engagement exercise on the Inverness Strategy incorporating outcomes, vision, key projects, and a new masterplan for the city centre.
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The contrast in the two strategies means they can be combined, if not easily then relatively harmoniously because the council vision specifically targets individual projects – 61 in all and dozens of potential proposals.
On the other hand the Inverness Futures vision – which aims to improve access, boost business, reduce climate harms, increase housing, and generally raise the standard of living – hopes to be informed and directed by local stakeholders.
A city that works for its people
MP Drew Hendry who is the chairman of the Inverness Futures Groups said: "This is very good news and formally completes the adoption of Inverness 2035 as a direction for the whole City. It is exciting that the council now joins a raft of other public bodies, such as HIE and Highlife Highland, as well as business organisations, such as the Chamber of Commerce, Inverness BID, Visit Scotland and community and business figures in backing this positive vision for the future of this City.
“Of course, this isn't about what's written in a report; it's about ensuring we have a city that works for the people who live here and is attractive to visitors. Only by working together can we ensure Inverness becomes a welcoming, successful, green, sustainable city at the heart of a thriving Highlands.”
Inverness city leader Ian Brown said: “Obviously we have got a lot of consultation to do, we've already proved we are going to have to find new ways to consult and encourage people to engage.
“It is ambitious but it will deliver and that is what we want because I don’t want it to be a talking shop with a lot of great ideas. It's the delivery I'm looking forward to.
“It is extremely difficult when it comes to consulting. But I think the difference now with the pandemic over there will be more face to face and whether we publicise it has to be at times when the public are able to attend.”
Vice provost of Inverness Morvern Reid said: “I think bringing it all together is streamlining the whole process.
“There is so much happening, there is so much going on and so much positive work going into developing the city that by streamlining it makes it much easier to build a true picture of what's happening and be able to understand where things may need to change or be developed further.
“That is one of the things that was raised – maybe some of it is not transformative enough but there are some very exciting projects going on.
“It's massive, the whole project, the whole one city, one vision – it's huge. There's so many projects and so many big projects that I think we do need to spend specific time towards it to make sure we are truly understanding it and doing the right thing for the city.”
