Business Comment

Stewart Nicol

Chief Executive

Inverness Chamber of Commerce

WITH all talk of the Scottish elections now well behind us, it’s time to look forward. For the SNP administration, it’s also time to look North.

We can live with the fact the SNP needed to woo the Central Belt during its campaign and that its manifesto showed favouritism towards Scotland’s two larger cities. However, we are concerned that the vast majority of the party’s commitment to improve transport and infrastructure also focused south, with a mere mention of "improvements to the A96 and A9".

Over the coming months Inverness Chamber of Commerce will lobby the SNP to show some commitment to the Highlands, and to Inverness in particular. This region has made a chameleon-like transformation from Lib-Dem to SNP and now voters will want to see their commitment rewarded.

First and foremost we want promises surrounding major road and rail improvements to be significantly less woolly. The only concrete pledge in the 2011 manifesto is to deliver two new rail services from Edinburgh.

The journey will still take over three hours. Time will tell if it will actually be possible for a Highland businessperson to attend a meeting in our capital city before 10am without having to stay overnight!

We understand that dualling the A9 is a hugely expensive exercise and we are not expecting miracles.

However, the piecemeal approach to road upgrades and the investment into much-criticised overtaking lanes is simply not good enough.

We need to see a long-term plan to upgrade the roads. With this in place, I believe Inverness would feel slightly less like this nation’s poorest cousin.

In uniting businesses to put pressure on government Inverness Chamber will remind them of their worth.

This region is becoming increasingly important to this nation’s future. If the SNP is going to deliver its promise to generate 50 per cent of our domestic energy needs from renewable sources they need the Highlands and Islands. And the businesses we are working to attract to deliver this promise will need to use our road, rail and air network.

One can only imagine what continental businesspeople think when it takes them three hours to travel 90 miles from Aberdeen to Inverness. Quaint may suit the tourist, but it certainly doesn’t work for business travellers.

There is significant development underway in Inverness. Inverness Harbour, Inverness Campus and Inverness Airport Business Park are all working to attract new business to the region. We strongly believe these businesses are more likely to come if they believe our road and rail connections will improve in the long term.

Inverness Chamber is determined to work with local and national politicians to develop a long term masterplan to improve this region’s connectivity. Yes, we understand we need another Forth Road Bridge, faster rail connections in the Central Belt and perhaps even a rail link to Glasgow Airport. But Inverness is an important city that has so much potential to grow. We must realise our potential and fight to move investment in this region up the agenda.

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