Council launches Inverness City Centre Action Plan
The purpose of the Action Plan is to identify the best ways of increasing footfall and improving the environment to make it a place where people want to live, work, socialise and invest.
A public exhibition is being held from 1pm - 8pm on Thursday 3rd April at the Town House where people will have the chance to shape an overall vision for the City Centre, and identify the top priorities for the future. This could include issues such as:
• the layout and design of buildings, streets and open spaces
• methods of travel to, from and around the City Centre
• the facilities, shops and services on offer
• the availability and quality of space for businesses to grow
The Council will also use the exhibition to present a list of priorities identified by a group of business and community representatives prior to the exhibition.
The information gathered at the workshop and exhibition will help the Council to prepare an Action Plan that will identify short, medium and long term actions and potential sources of funding. It will also flag up where further work is required to test the viability of potential projects or proposals. The Action Plan will be incorporated into a revised Inverness City Centre Development Brief that will be considered by the City of Inverness Area Committee later this year.
Councillor Ian Brown, Leader of the City of Inverness Area is urging all those with an interest in the city centre to get involved. He said “Inverness City Centre is facing many of the challenges that other parts of Scotland and indeed the UK are facing – with one important difference – we are the city in the Highlands and as a result have a very strong and stable base from which to work with. We need be positive about the city centre and recognise its strengths. The new Action Plan provides an opportunity to contribute to the future of the city, to make it a more attractive place to live, work, socialise and invest.”
Leader of The Highland Council, Councillor Drew Hendry added: “This Action Plan very much ties in with work we are doing in terms of sustainable travel. Earlier this week, we launched the first draft Green Transport strategy for the Highlands and are asking people to come back to us with their comments and at yesterday’s City Committee we confirmed our commitment for Inverness to be a Carbon CLEVER City by 2025. To achieve this we need to make sure the city is well designed and attractive for businesses and visitors with welcoming public open spaces, a vibrant café and restaurant scene, plenty of shops and thriving businesses. The launch of this Action Plan gives us the opportunity to look at the big picture and decide on priorities so I encourage as many people as possible to come along to the workshop and get involved.”
Information on the exhibition is available on the Highland Council website where you will soon be able to submit comments to us. Meantime, feel free to get the conversation going through twitter @highlanddevplans #InvCityFuture or Facebook or contact us at devplans@highland.gov.uk.
ENDS