Loss of Inverallan Church would be massive blow to Grantown
Over the past decade that I have lived in Strathspey, it has been disappointing to see how the smaller towns have been ‘hollowed out’ by the reduction of services such as banking, utilities, policing and high street shopping.
A house of worship at the centre of our community could be the next to go (Strathy, front page November 14).
The congregation of Inverallan Church has presented a well-intentioned and professionally drawn application to adapt their church to better serve the present and future needs of their community.
Understandably, a key feature of this request for planning consent is being able to install solar panels on the church’s roof in order to cut the cost of energy for the reconfiguration of the church as a multi-use venue space.
Yet the application has been twice rejected on the subjective weighting of history and architecture over heritage and community.
This is a sad commentary where no less than half a block away the planning office for the Cairngorms National Park Authority stands as a clear demonstration of how Victorian and modern architectural styles can be combined to serve contemporary needs.Historic Scotland has no objection in general to solar panels being fitted on listed buildings.
Edinburgh and Crichton castles as well as the estate office for Balmoral have all reduced their carbon footprints with this technology.
Suggestion that installation of solar panels would be acceptable if there were relocated to the north-facing roof of Inverallan Church - where they would be inefficient - is reminiscent of the anecdote about King Canute ordering the tide to stop.
Highland Council is not always in the position to counter the impacts due to decisions that third-parties may make whether for changing social patterns or budgetary limitations.
In this case, it must not openly contribute to the loss of community facilities and heritages through its planning processes.
The council is the custodian of our Highland communities.
It should act to reverse the decision by planning officers to deny the application for consent for Inverallan Church and maintain a vital part of Grantown’s heritage and community vitality.
Dennis Stickley
Grantown.
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Cuts to 50mph is recipe for rise in tragedy on roads
In your report of Fergus Ewing’s latest comments about the A9, you suggest that the Government’s proposed increase of speed limits on single carriageway trunk roads to 50 mph for HGVs will affect, among other roads, “the A9”.
It may or may not have escaped your notice that the speed limit for HGVs on single carriageway sections of the A9 between Perth and Inverness has for several years been 50 mph, allegedly on an experimental basis.
What are the results of that experiment in road safety terms?
Logistics UK’s spokesperson claims that it has had a positive effect.
But Logistics UK “represents and supports the freight sector” according to its website.
This is another way of saying that they overwhelmingly represent the road haulage industry - an impartial source?
What does the Government’s consultation paper have to say on the matter?
My own view - based on pacing HGVs on my daily commute along the A9 and A95 between 1989 and 2016 - is that the “experiment” was not a road safety initiative so much as a decriminalisation initiative.
Almost every lorry I followed - increasingly so as the years went by - was doing speeds well in excess of 50 mph.
The Government’s own consultation paper admits that compliance with established speed limits is low.
I would agree with Fergus that the proposed speed limits are likely to cause frustration-driven dangerous overtaking manoeuvres.
But legitimising HGV disregard of speed limits while restricting cars to 50 mph, as the Government proposes, doesn’t seem to me to best address this problem - which, let’s remember, affects the road network all over rural Scotland.
Andrew McCracken
Grantown.
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Divine right to worship at Grantown church
The installation of solar panels on the roof of Inverallan Church was always going to be controversial so why was it not raised at an early stage with the planning committee?
I would like to ask if this elaborate refurbishment of the interior of this historic building will generate a bigger congregation at the Sunday morning service or would the minister be embarrassed because there were people sitting in the proposed cafe?
The word ‘closure’ is used as a lever which has caused concern to the local undertakers who have the very delicate job of providing space to accommodate unknown numbers.
We are all guilty of setting our sights too high, where we come up against a buffer zone, and have to come down to ground level, where the interior of the church is retained but divided equally to suit the needs of religious ceremonies and heated by modern day technology which is hidden from view.
You can now purchase heated wallpaper, so maybe we all need to donate a roll of this to the church, and ask Raymond Davidson to come out of retirement and stick it on the walls?
I am not in a position to advise anyone on religious faith but I went to Sunday School every Sunday in the South Church and got a bible for perfect attendance.
I have read a passage at the Armistice service; I read a passage at the school assembly; I listen every week to the excellent songs of praise from America and never miss the songs on TV on a Sunday.
And I have done eulogies for departed friends when stationed at Fort George barracks as a proud Seaforth Highlander.
We marched to church every Sunday carrying our Caberfeidh bible.
We were made to say the Lord’s Prayer loudly and sing at the top of our voice by a burly Sergeant Major, with failure to comply earning you bed and breakfast in the Caberfeidh Hotel - with bars on the window.
The Army bible fitted into the breast pocket of the tunic which saved lives in the war.
Many will remember how the minister used to stand at the Inverallan Church door to welcome those attending the morning service and accept the brown envelope containing the collecion money.
On one legendary occasion a woman appeared topless and when the minister stopped her from entering she protested that she had a divine right.
He told her she had a divine left as well but was still not getting into the church.
Well, I have a divine right to air my views on Inverallan Church and am passionate about retaining buildings within the town in the way they were built.
At the same time I do I look forward to the day when the congregation can say ‘Pew! It’s hot in here…’
Leonard Grassic
Coppice Court
Grantown.