Residents in Drakies in Inverness fear they may lose their park if a proposal in Highland Council's Inner Moray Firth Proposed Local Development Plan is approved
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Residents in Inverness are being encouraged to have a say to help protect a much-loved play park in the city.
Karyne Walker’s daughter, Vada Ogilvie, loves to visit the Drakies Park, just off Sir Walter Scott Drive, but the site has been identified for development by Highland Council.
It is part of the Inner Moray Firth Proposed Local Development Plan which is currently open for public consultation – however, residents have until Friday to register their views.
According to the online consultation document it has a housing capacity of 80 homes and Miss Walker said that if it was eventually approved it would mean the loss of the play park to make way for an access road.
She said: “There are two plans for the field behind the police station, one for a Lidl with a 109 space car park and 39 affordable houses and an entrance coming off of a new roundabout in-between Inshes and Eagle roundabouts.
“The other is for a development for 80 houses with an entrance coming from the Eagle roundabout cutting through where the park is.”
She said the second plan was the council’s preferred option and she was trying to rally support against it. She added: “I have alerted the community by sharing via a few Facebook groups and asking people to share the posts so it reaches further and passing the message to the parents at school pick-up and drop-off times.”
Miss Walker said her daughter enjoyed playing there and they also walked their dog in the field – however if they did lose it they would have to cross a busy road to go to the next nearest park in Inshes.
She said: “I am against it because I fear for the safety of my child and other children, if the park is taken down and not put back up, it will mean that they will have to cross a very busy road, one of the busiest roads in Inverness.”
In addition she said the field was gifted to Highland Council by a business when the Inshes retail park was in the process of being built. She said: “It was gifted as open space for recreational purposes only. That field was also left as a sound and pollution buffer when the distributor road was built.
“We as a community fear that they will continue to build houses until that field is gone and our children and their families will lose that green space.”
She said the loss of the local amenity would add to the lack of sports facilities in the area and children would not be able to explore and get the exercise and fresh air they needed to help them grow and thrive.
Angela Ogilvie, a childcare practitioner from Andy Pandy Nursery in Inverness, said: “Please leave Drakies Park alone, for the use of the residents of Drakies and their friends and family, as it was originally intended when the land was gifted to Highland Council for open space and recreational use.”
