YOUR VIEWS: A better way to deal with housing demand?
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Readers on the need for a new approach to development and views on the Ironworks hotel saga.
A better way to deal with housing demand?
I thought I would write a brief letter to voice my concerns, and the views of others I have spoken to who share my concerns, regarding the problems of “urban sprawl” and “inner city decay” going on most notably in Inverness and also in tight-knit communities in rural areas in the Highlands.
Whilst people need a roof over their heads at an affordable cost to buy or rent, and these houses and business parks are well constructed, even some of my friends in various town planning departments have confided in me how distressing it is to see green belt land suddenly turn into brown earth sites, and natural habitats transformed into concrete jungles whilst older properties are left to go to rack and ruin in town centres. Older properties, which, with a little bit of renovation, would make perfectly good dwelling places for those looking for somewhere nice to live.
To be very honest it would be sad to see the Highlands in general (both landscaped urban areas and pretty rural areas) suffer the same plight as other parts of the United Kingdom, where our green and pleasant land has been over-developed to the extent that everyone is living on top of one another and is consequently at each others’ throats so to speak – and there’s hardly a blade of grass or a single tree or hedgerow or field left.
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Decision on city centre hotel is deferred
Councillors on the south planning applications committee voted to defer a decision on whether or not to approve plans to build a new seven-storey hotel on the site of Inverness’s Ironworks venue.
“A city centre music venue seems a much better use of the space than another hotel. Surely the hotel could be positioned less centrally.” – Marion Robertson
“Even if it’s refused, the Ironworks will likely still close as the owners of the building want to sell it!!!!!” – Kirsteen Iona Kelly
“Kirsteen Iona Kelly, but it’s in the council’s hands to preserve us from these ‘Soviet’ architectural middens – not that, historically going right back to Bridge Street, various councils have been very successful at doing that!” – Charles Bannerman
