MSP calls for Highland Council to make popular Aviemore short-cut safer
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A Highlands MSP is calling on Highland Council to tidy up their act at a popular shortcut in Aviemore.
Labour MSP Rhoda Grant has made further contact with the local authority in a bid to have the broken lighting repaired at the Dell of Spey underpass.
She also wants the surrounding area cleared of mud and dead leaves to make the area safer until new lighting can be installed.
After lobbying for improvement in the area, Mrs Grant was advised that the installation of new lighting – which was to have taken place in the summer – had been delayed as the council are unable to commit resources to complete the work as planned.
The council have advised that they are working with suppliers to commission a “design and build” project to include supply and installation of the lighting.
However they cite extended delivery timescales due to global shortages of electronic equipment and the impact of the Covid pandemic as the reasons for the works being pushed back into next year.
Mrs Grant told the Strathy: “Highland Council have not confirmed to me exactly when next year the new project will take place and constituents meantime are fearful walking in the area due to the poor lighting, and the debris of mud and dead leaves on the path.
“I’m told that during recent heavy rain the burn was the same level as the path.
"This is an accident waiting to happen and I have asked the council to take steps to repair the old lighting in the meantime and make the area generally safer while we wait for the new lighting to be installed.”
The underpass connects the centre of Aviemore with a well-used back footpath – now lit thanks in part to Mrs Grant’s campaigning – to the village’s main housing areas at Dalnabay, Dalfaber and Lochan Mor.
