New Highland Council Inverness Strategy ‘StoryMap’ details all the major city projects planned up to 2030 including transport, housing, hotels and active travel
A wave of developments delivered, in the works or proposed for the Inverness area has been collated by Highland Council on a “StoryMap” in a bid to find partners to promote the city as the economic, social and cultural centre of the Highlands.
In all, well over 100 projects are named in the online tool identifying what is planned, where, what funding is available as well as the current stage of development, whether they are already delivered or in process.
While many of the proposals for the city are likely to be broadly welcomed, residents outside of Inverness may wonder if the local authority’s focus of attention will come at the expense of the rest of the region.
The public will get a chance to have their say at a public face-to-face event to showcase projects highlighted as part of the Inverness Strategy and featured on the StoryMap website at Inverness Town House on November 26 from 2pm - 7pm.
The ideas are not new, former MP Drew Hendry led the Inverness Futures Group that produced the Inverness 2035 vision in October 2021 and this was followed by the council’s own take called The Inverness Strategy just the next month, the two sets of ideas were amalgamated.
Since then little has escaped the council about how its plans are progressing though there were some notable exceptions – the Union Street development was completed, the Academy Street redevelopment was abandoned.
What is new is the detail available for both the public and potential partners – the reason the council says it is releasing this information – and that provides one of the best panorama of the local authority’s plans.
First, there are a number of projects that are “not proceeding”. Top of that list is the “illegal” Academy Street revamp but also the bus lane on Barn Church Road, which is “currently on hold, pending confirmation of A96 dualling”.
There are also a number of near-forgotten projects like the Millburn Road Bus and active travel corridor to build bus and cycle lanes along the route – this was tried and abandoned once already after causing severe tailbacks.
Now the “StoryMap” reveals that a formal transport appraisal was completed into how to cut the impact of congestion on buses and encourage active travel with the scheme “interlinked to proposed design for Academy Street.”
The current status is that the appraisal is “with Transport Scotland for evaluation to determine whether funding will be granted to the Highland Council for outline business case stage”.
That highlights one issue why the strategy is often called “ambitious” in that one scheme – like the A96 or Academy Street – could have a knock on effect for others and in seeking to work with so many different partners a lot can go wrong.
Yet the strategy is also ambitious in what it wants to achieve for the city through “priority outcomes” that are listed as – Inverness as a prime destination; a living working city; a green and healthy city; a zero carbon city; an accessible and connected city and a digital city.
According to the StoryMap the priority outcomes described “will not be delivered overnight” but is “a longer-term vision for the city” that all projects “will be encouraged” to meet as many of the criteria above as possible.
It explains projects are at various stages of development including those which have been delivered – like Hydro Ness or the active travel improvements at the Raigmore Interchange.
Others are in active development or construction, or are committed and considered to be Pipeline developments while “a smaller number of opportunity project ideas have also been identified” that may also be considered.
It adds: “Some projects may be Not Proceeding because of a variety of reasons. These projects have not been deleted from the Strategy completely as they may be picked up in some form in the future.”
City leader, Councillor Ian Brown said: “The Inverness Strategy is about collating recent and anticipated projects across the city and area to build on one another to bring about a much bigger, collective vision.
“The site is a great resource to capture what’s happening across our city with details of projects planned, underway or completed in an easy-to-use format that reflects the partnership approach across the public, private and community sectors.”
Economy and infrastructure committee chairman, Councillor Ken Gowans, said: “The city of Inverness is at an exciting stage in its evolving role as the main economic, service and administrative centre for Highland and a transport hub for the wider Highland and Islands region.
“By bringing together what's happening across the City, the site clearly lays out the collective vision all partners have. This collective approach will improve the coordination, funding and delivery of existing and emerging plans, projects and workstream to ensure Inverness remains Highland's prime destination for those who live, work, visit and invest here.”
