Banners and chanting welcomes Highland councillors to meeting about controversial Inverness riverside artwork

PROTESTERS against controversial public art planned for Inverness have been chanting outside Highland Council headquarters.

A special meeting of the council's Inverness city committee is taking place in the venue this afternoon and will determine whether to push ahead with a programme of riverside art projects.

Plans for two curved walls either side of the River Ness – named My Ness – have prompted much criticism after being approved by council officials in private.

It prompted a group of councillors to push for the plans to be discussed publicly.

There has been a mixed response to the plans, including a petition signed by thousands of people opposed to the My Ness scheme going ahead.

Around 20 people outside the council headquarters held banners and chanted "hands off our Ness".

Helen Smith, a member of OpenNess – a group which has been calling for a rethink on the My Ness project for a variety of reasons, is at the meeting: "We hope the councillors will listen to what we have tried to tell them and take into account what is best for the river and for the people.

"We hope they will be big enough to realise that they have made a mistake and it is time to go back to the drawing board."

Related article: Decision due on Inverness riverside artwork

Do you want to respond to this article? If so, click here to submit your thoughts and they may be published in print.