Inverness sauna plan ‘an excellent addition to the riverside area’
At last we have an imaginative and innovative new proposal to enhance the riverside surroundings in Inverness.
A community sauna is being planned for Bellfield Park to promote relaxation and wellbeing.
What a pity it wasn't available for use by the last council. With a 26-person capacity intended for the sauna, Inverness councillors could have held meetings there. They could have relaxed, chilled out, and sweated away their three-year obsession with adorning the riverside with supposedly "artistic" junk. Tensions over the location of "the tilting pier" would have been eased if not erased by languid contemplation in the sauna. It would have removed manic determination to replace riverside grass with concrete. Plans for the hideous "Gathering Place" would have been reduced to a puddle of perspiration on the sauna room floor.
The Bellfield sauna, granted planning permission this week, is certainly something of an eye-opener for a park which mainly used to be popular for pitch n' putt and is still a very popular leisure area, but it pales in comparison with those council riverside notions which surfaced before. And, in the case of the Gathering Place, became a bizarre slab of concrete reality.
I would not grudge any councillor therapeutic access to a sauna, at Bellfield Park or anywhere else. They take on a challenging role which involves multiple commitments. But a recent 22 per cent pay rise must play at least some role in lightening that burden.
This increase was made nationally to try and prevent it causing embarrassment to councillors. Whether or not that strategy worked is open to question. A 22 per cent rise still looks extravagant, at a minimum, no matter how the decision was made.
But back to the riverside, justifiably hailed as the city's "Jewel in the Crown".
Community Highland Sauna say: "We propose an authentic community sauna and a well-loved place for rest and relaxation at all seasons of the year."
Compare and contrast this with the previous council's determination which extended for months on end to build that tilting pier on the other side of the river slap bang in the middle of Ness Walk.
The intention was that people would have gathered there to jump up and down on a bizarre "tilting" structure which would have destroyed the peaceful ambience of a much-loved area and would have blown its rest and relaxation appeal to smithereens.
Community Highland Sauna add: "People will come to the site and the culture will be quiet and peaceful."
What splendid intentions compared with the three-year battle that raged over the Gathering Place, involving a 3000-signature petition against it, councillors defying massive public opposition, and a construction process that went on for months as grassy riverside was ripped up and replaced by a curved concrete wall. No one gathers there or ever will, and it cost at least £300,000 to build the thing.
The damage is done now, but it's certainly not forgotten. And, considering it was the worst council decision in decades, nor should it be.
So the proposal for the Bellfield Park Sauna should be welcomed and recognised as being an excellent addition to the riverside area. The people behind it are intent on doing their bit to add to the restful and welcoming appeal of the riverside and its surrounds. And it will make others wonder all the more why many councillors and officials were so recently gripped by crazy ideas guaranteed to do the exact opposite.