The great divide is bridged
All has been quiet on the western Laurel Brae front for more than two years but now it appears that the so-called Berlin Wall in Aviemore will shortly be knocked down.
It means that the once popular thoroughfare between the Aviemore Highland Resort and the village centre will finally be re-instated more than seven years after it was blocked off by resort bosses.
Its removal will also symbolise the big thaw in the one-time chilly relationship between sections of the community and the resort that has taken place in recent years.
Although the resort eventually won the court battle to prove they had a legal right to erect and retain the fence, its removal was made a condition by the Cairngorms National Park Authority before work could start elsewhere on the centre lands.
There were no real winners apart from the advocates and their law firms who racked up the cash as the case was debated all the way up to the highest civil court in the land.
So confirmation that the brae is to be reopened is good news all round.
The only peculiar thing in all of this is that the Macdonald resort has had to apply for planning permission to remove something that is no longer wanted by anyone – the resort, the community and even the planning authority.
Perhaps to mark this momentus occasion David Hasselhoff can be booked to sing when Aviemore’s own Berlin Wall comes down as he did – astride the remnants – barely a month after the fall of the original in November 1989!
The Hoff does appear to be willing to be up for most things these days.
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IT is good that work finally started on Monday to upgrade Highland Council’s Grant House residential care home in Grantown.
The overhaul to be carried out in two parts will cost nearly £1 million and will be welcomed by all connected with the facility.
The Wade Centre in Kingussie was also identified in the mid 2000s by Highland Council’s first administration as a care home that was also in need of substantial modernisation to comply with new legislation.
But in the face of widespread opposition, the wheels fell off the privatisation bandwagon which was to have met the bills for this work and five others in the region.
Since then money has been found within Highland Council for substantial work to improve most of those homes including £1.128 million for Ach an Eas in Inverness and £2 million for Fort William’s Invernevis House.
But the Wade Centre has just had some running repairs and a paint job. How much longer will residents there have to wait before they see big improvements to their home?
