Watch: Delay over controversial bus gate to enable bat survey highlights division in Highland community
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Campaigners against a proposed bus gate at Raigmore Hospital in Inverness have welcomed a decision to delay the project to enable further ecological studies.
It follows the possible presence of bat roosts.
But the announcement has disappointed and angered local community leaders who fear it could impact on the development of the elective care centre being built at Inverness Campus and delay long-awaited improvements to bus services.
The proposed link from Churchill Road in Raigmore estate and through the hospital site to Old Perth Road is required as a planning condition for the elective care centre, to alleviate congestion on surrounding roads.
But the proposals prompted an outcry from residents, citing the felling of mature trees and a detrimental impact on those living nearby, plus a lack of consultation.
Highland Council – which has been working with NHS Highland and Stagecoach Highland to identify a route – announced this week the project will be delayed after the public agency, NatureScot, advised further ecological data needs to be collected before trees can be felled.
The project had secured £500,000 from the Scottish Government Bus Priority Rapid Deployment Fund but the delay means it will no longer be eligible and alternative funding will be sought.
Opponents hope the delay will enable a better route to be identified.
Campaigner Denise Stewart-Thomson, of Ashton Crescent, believed a potential solution was to use Old Perth Road as a bus lane and prohibit private vehicle use on it.
"I hope common sense will prevail permanently," she said.
Mrs Stewart-Thomson said she had initially raised concerns about the felling of trees while other residents had voiced worries including children’s safety and the impact on nearby homes.
"The impact on our area would be massive," said Mrs Stewart-Thomson, adding there had been a survey previously about improving bus services in the area.
"This bus gate is so far removed from what people were originally consulted on.
"I want them to stop it. It is not acceptable."
Inverness Millburn councillor Isabelle MacKenzie also welcomed the delay and called for a less costly, more direct and efficient route to be explored rather than the one suggested going around the hospital and nearby houses which would result in lost car parking spaces.
"I’m delighted to get acknowledgement that mature irreplaceable 200-year-old oak trees are not to be felled at this stage," she said. "Hopefully, it will be permanent.
"I am not against a bus gate but dispute the route chosen.”
But Raigmore Community Council is "disappointed and angry" that the first notification it received of the delay was in a press release.
Chairman Munro Ross said: "The community council is concerned that the loss of funding caused by the delay could have an adverse impact on the elective care centre for which the bus gate is a planning condition.
"We are also disappointed that the long overdue bus service improvements that the gate would have facilitated and that many residents, especially those who do not drive, want as a matter of urgency."
A council spokesman said: "The Raigmore bus gate remains a long-held aspiration of the various parties involved in the project and is a requirement upon NHS Highland who must deliver it before it can occupy the elective care centre currently under construction at Inverness Campus.
"The partners are now working to secure funding to progress the route through alternative sources.
"Work to deliver a link between Farraline Park and Rose Street is progressing as planned, contractors have commenced work on that route."
A spokeswoman for NatureScot said the council had applied to NatureScot for a licence to fell a tree containing a bat roost at Raigmore.
But the aerial survey identified one bat roosting in the tree and described other features as having excellent potential for roosting bats.
She said: "Several of our resident bat species are known to roost in trees and more detail is required before we can consider the council’s licence application in full.
"We are working towards licensing the works at an appropriate time of year to minimise impacts on wildlife."
Related story: Row continues over planned bus gate
