YOUR VIEWS: City buses, business success and visitor numbers
Readers have been busy commenting on a range of news stories – do you agree with them?
City buses still causing problems for passengers
Courier columnist Colin Campbell hit out at a city bus service he says has collapsed in terms of reliability and regularity.
“I agree totally with Mr Campbell. I work at New Craigs as a Community Nurse and so many times recently I have struggled to get either to work or home after my shifts. I have raised the issue with Stagecoach who have informed me that updates are posted on Twitter but not all of us can access our phones during work hours, I have seen buses ‘cancelled’, called a taxi and then have them arrive. A colleague at Raigmore has told me she often has to walk from Scorguie to work, do a 12-hour shift and then hope she can get home to bed. This desperately needs sorting.” – Sue Littlemore, Inverness
Garden centre sees financially strong performance
Simpsons Garden Centre in Inverness saw turnover increase by more than a £2.5 million last year. Simpson Highview – which owns the Inverness business and a site in Mintlaw – also experienced a rise in pre-tax profit in the year ending January 7, 2022.
“Well done to them... they work very hard at it and deserve all success.” – Christine Galbraith
“It’s a great garden centre and excellent restaurant and nice staff and they still take cash.” – Peter Sinclair
“Great news, hope they never sell out to a chain.” – Pamela E K
New campaign to boost visitor numbers
A new campaign will encourage visitors from across the UK and Europe to discover the natural and cultural heritage of the Highlands and Islands. It is part of the Spirit of the Highlands and Islands project between Highland Council and High Life Highland which will be delivered in collaboration with VisitScotland as a £500,000 multi-channel promotional drive.
“When is enough visitors enough. Last year we had buses dropping off bus loads over 40 per day and swarms of tourists hunting in packs in the city centre and that’s not including the ones living in the multitude of hotels in the centre or the ones who travel by train or stay outside Inverness. Reducing vehicle traffic in town would help as I don’t think we have the infrastructure to cope at present.” – Sandy Hunter
