Business Comment: Questions still to be answered on Academy Street Inverness plans
The fact that Academy Street needs intervention and improvement is not in dispute. What that solution is, what its likely impact will be and how the process has been handled to date, is where the ongoing disagreement lies.
It’s tentatively good news however that Highland Council are reported to have stated that “no real-world decisions have yet been made”. If correct and if options other than the current proposal can still be scoped and properly explored that would be welcome news for businesses as well as other stakeholders. Whilst supportive of change, both remain extremely concerned (at least in its current inception) that the current plan is not the proven answer.
The published Economic and Traffic Impact Assessments for example, whilst welcome, still only tell us half the story mainly due to the narrow brief given by Highland Council. This brief directed the focus to be on transport and wider economics with no primary research undertaken.
Plans must be “context and evidence led” yet there remains much we still don’t know including the likely impact on our local businesses, jobs, household disposable incomes and commercial returns as these factors and more were not quantified. Therefore, any modest gains projected could be offset against these further additional and very important considerations.
We strongly support the call that further analysis via a local economic impact assessment now be commissioned to both fill in the gaps and hopefully explore other options.
Lorraine Bremner McBride is an Inverness BID director
