EDWARD MOUNTAIN: Highland Council and the Scottish Government has chance to align itself with the public’s priorities
A recent letter to this newspaper about the bungled Academy Street proposals really caught my eye.
The correspondent noted that the controversial plans showed that neither the council nor the Scottish Government understood what real voters care about, and that their priorities “misalign”.
Of course, if the council had bothered to carry out a proper consultation on this redesign, then it would have discovered that businesses and members of the public have grave concerns.
Instead, it has ended up in a bitter legal battle, one it must abandon at the earliest opportunity and go back to the drawing board.
The local authority cannot simply carve up the city centre like this and expect everyone else to swallow it without proper consultation.
And if Highland Council doesn’t want to listen to the views of those upon whom this will have most impact, it should consider the experience of other cities when it comes to unpopular traffic measures.
Glasgow’s Low Emissions Zone (LEZ) has been a disaster, and is wrecking businesses in the city centre, as well as the black cab trade which now has tougher regulations to contend with.
Edinburgh, Dundee and Aberdeen are following suit, and they too will learn that dogmatic rules imposed with political motivation only have negative consequences.
Aberdeen went even further with their ludicrous bus gate experiment, which unsurprisingly has attracted hundreds of objections amid evidence business takings have plummeted.
Quite why Inverness wants to rival these haphazard schemes is a mystery.
This isn’t to say the status quo must remain.
Like all modern cities, we need to evolve and monitor ways of reducing congestion and improving quality of life.
And where there are excellent public transport options, local authorities should indeed seek to cut down on the number of motorists coming through.
But no-one could claim this is the case in Inverness, and it should be remembered that people drive considerable distances – sometimes up to 150 miles – to come to the city.
It is ridiculous and hardly environmentally beneficial for them to drive all that way then find a vital route in the centre out of bounds.
And as for the council’s vision for Parisian-style pavement cafes, I don’t think even the most optimistic tour guide could claim we have the climate for that to be worth pursuing.
The next course of action for the council should be simple.
Accept the decision of the court, and get back to square one.
Put a range of options on the board, and listen to what people are saying.
Only then should a comprehensive plan be embarked upon, and one that helps growth, supports opportunity and makes Inverness a place people want to be.
We all know the council was too hasty in pursuing its favoured option because it thought it would tick boxes and unlock some funding.
The long-term wellbeing of the city centre is far more important than speculative, non-recurring funding in the name of active travel.
And perhaps when the local authority does pursue a more sensible and collaborative approach, the views of people may change.
Academy Street presents an opportunity for the council, with the Scottish Government, to align itself with the priorities of the public.
As the Courier’s recent correspondent noted, that objective could not be further away as things stand.
