Inverness traders say Academy Street scheme was not consulted on and will make life impossible for businesses
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The sheer variety of different businesses against the planned traffic reduction on Academy Street has highlighted the range of issues the local private sectors says it is facing due to revamp.
So far they consist of major national brands like M&S Inverness, a McDonalds franchiser, Inverness BID, the Eastgate Centre, bar owners, butchers, property developers and a leading legal firm.
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And almost all say the same thing – that they were blind-sided by the late change to the proposals having already been reassured that there would be no immediate attempt to throttle traffic through the city centre.
Council never mentioned traffic restrictions
The opposite turned out to be be true as Rod Callender, Operations Manager at the Eastgate Centre, confirmed after he specifically asked about the issue during the consultation period.
“A traffic restriction was not discussed at any point during the consultation,” he said. “I asked the question during one of the consultations that in future could there possibly be traffic restrictions? And they said that we can say that it won't happen in three or four years but it's certainly not part of the proposals so we were as surprised as everyone else.”
He said the only solution now is for the council to come back to the businesses and start talking again: “I think they certainly need to come back to the table and re-engage and actually carry out a consultation on the issues with the traffic restriction order.
“And I think they actually have to confirm how they believe the town centre is going to work with a little bit of inclusion of the Milton Corridor because they are both inter-linked, albeit they're treating them separately as two separate projects. They join at the traffic lights, just outside our building.”
The proposal was changed without further consultation
Asked whether he agreed with the other businesses that the consultation has ignored the views of businesses, Chris Kershaw, Eastgate Manager said: "Exactly that.
“In terms of the consultation that has been proposed and then been changed without further consultation. So, in terms of, how that's come across there's just a lot of questions that have arisen that have not been taken into account and something that affects us heavily is the Millburn Corridor plans that have been live essentially in various forms since 2017.
“There's no answer on how that impacts us because there's a million there's a million car movements going through Eastgate and how that's going to affect the areas of Crown and areas on either side of that let alone anybody that's coming into town from south or north.
We don't have the infrastructure of a city
Rebecca Yorston, owner of R&B Bar, said it looks like the council has fallen into the trap of believing that because Inverness is a city it has everything cities elsewhere take for granted.
“The council can't even get people home for an affordable price,” she said. “They go on about how we are a city. Yet we don't have the infrastructure to back up that claim that we are a city. We can't don't have trains, buses, taxis that can get people home at an affordable price.
“To be honest, I think the whole thing is a bit of a grey area in terms of just now they're saying that there's gonna be no private vehicles allowed near any of these streets. I'm an independent business so getting stock to my premises, for example, how am I meant to do that as an independent business.”
The changes will raise issues of safety
Other issues are just, if not more serious for Ms Yorston, who said: “I sometimes get stock locally, I can't exactly park at Rose Street or in the Eastgate and then – how am I carrying that?
“I'm also not saying I'm not capable but I'm also a female with alcohol money and things like that like, thousands of pounds of takings. It is not safe at all.
“I went to Bookers this morning and spent £800 and all that stock is in the back of my car. If you're not allowed private vehicles, how am I getting that there? I then have to figure out another way. It's not possible. Come on, you can't do that.
“We are a late licence venue so it is a concern about my staff getting home, me getting home – I am not being funny but taxis aren't always affordable. I have staff who are single mothers who live outside of Inverness and it would eat their whole night’s wage just to get home.”
