Muirtown Community Council is investigating the possibility of lodging a petition with the Scottish Parliament Public Petitions Committee.
Chairman Jim Kidd was quoted in the Inverness Courier [1/4/08] as saying: “We want priority given to road traffic rather than water traffic,” that the set times when the bridges are supposed to be closed to boats were too short and that the agreement on opening times was often ignored by British Waterways Scotland.
Muirtown Bridge is closed to canal traffic 8.20am – 9.20am, 1.15pm – 1.45pm and 5pm – 5.30pm.
Tomnahurich Bridge is closed to canal traffic 8.30am – 9.15am, 12.45pm – 1.15pm and 4.50pm – 5.20pm.
“They reserve the right to open the bridge whenever they feel and they do. Everything else has to stop. We want that right removed. It is very inconvenient and there is no rhyme or reason,” he added. “According to the roads department, Telford Street is one of the busiest roads in the north of Scotland.”
COMMENT BY ALEX GRAHAM
The A82 Fort William and A862 Beauly roads both pass over swing bridges, resulting in all road access from Inverness to and from the west being affected when these bridges are opened.
People living in Kinmylies and Scorguie are particularly inconvenienced, as well as those living further out.
The continuing problems at Muirtown and Torvean highlight the need for a permanent crossing of the Caledonian Canal. Hopefully the Scottish Government will agree with the bid from Highland Council for an aqueduct at Torvean which will provide this permanent link.
We issued a challenge through the press to local Independent and SNP councillors to justify their voting record on the recent Council budget cuts, asking them to explain why they did not back moves to save key teaching posts, the Council grants to Age Concern and Princess Royal Carers, the Play Development officer, support for children with special educational needs, building and road maintenance and extra flood prevention measures.
I said I was proud of my colleagues who stood firm against this Administration’s cuts, and who all voted for every single one of 18 amendments to the Administration’s budget last week.
Highlighting that we were 100% against the cuts I calculated that 14 Independent and SNP councillors from Inverness had cast 98% of their votes for the cuts, and that support from even half of the SNP and Independent members of the Council would have made a huge difference with the deep cuts in service delivery being avoided.
We also mentioned the marker down to show our serious concern at the level of Council house rents — the increase of 5.3% cannot be repeated year on year.
The Lib Dems had argued at the budget meeting that the Council could be more efficient and that, if it met the 2% efficiency target set for it by the Scottish Government, these cuts would be unnecessary. No-one in the Council’s Independent/SNP Administration has contradicted this though they only came up with efficiency savings of just 1.6%.
Another Lib Dem councillor (Black Isle rep David Alston) has been featuring strongly in the press and in particular on the deletion of the post of play Development Officer who brought in £100k in extra funding for children last year alone. He said: “To cut this work seems madness. We will continue to campaign to retain the post and to save Age Concern and Princess Royal Carers.”
As the pressure on the Administration’s proposed budget builds up, the press statement of 7th February which skilfully glossed over the less palatable aspects of their plans has dropped off the Council website front page and now languishes in 13th place in the February releases. In spite of an avalanche of criticism of the budget in the press no further comment has been published on the website.
Mysteriously the January release warning of traffic delays at the installation of the final two lane section on the A830 “Road to the Isles” at Arisaig is still holding on to a front page spot, possibly because it is a totemic item of public works which has a news value well above that of the average road improvement.
Former MP Russell Johnston campaigned for this road for almost the whole of his 33 year term as Inverness-shire MP, and it is remarkable to see it finally being completed.
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Following on the success of “Musicworks” last summer, Charleston Academy is to present the Wizard of Oz at Eden Court Theatre on 25th and 26th June 2008. Don’t forget to put it in your diary!
Charleston Academy has a website at this link.
Best wishes for Christmas and the New Year
Nollaig chridheil agus bliadhna mhath ùr
Dear David
Many thanks for the update, though I am concerned that the P&J carried this before members were informed.
The proposal to build over the Northern Meeting Park is quite outrageous. I am completely at a loss to understand how one of the few green spaces in the town centre can even be considered for building over.
You can be assured that at least one member of the Council is totally opposed.
Best wishes
Alex
An Inverness councillor has stepped into the debate over secret plans for a £15 Highland Museum and Art gallery.
“The Northern Meeting Park must not used for this building, or any other development,” Inverness West councillor Alex Graham.”It is an irreplaceable piece of green space close to the town centre and must be retained.”
Councillor Graham, who is also campaigning for the nearby Bught Park to be protected, claims that the Northern Meeting Park has been the victim of “benign neglect”.
“It has not been promoted properly as a leisure and local amenity. It should be for the use of local people first and foremost.”
Councillor Graham hopes to get support from other local councillors in Central and West Inverness and will take the issue to the Inverness City Committee if necessary.
The programme of the Independent/SNP was finally published on 21st June. Much of it was commendable and some of it was clearly drawn from the Liberal Democrat pre-election manifesto. None of it was in the least Orwellian.
However, in keeping with the modern Govermental usage, the word “Housing” was little mentioned (only five times in fact), and it failed to make it as a title. Instead housing proposals included under the heading of “Sustainable Communities”, which has entered the vocabulary from the direction of Whitehall.
Perhaps there is a reason for this new terminological arrival. The nation is gripped by a housing crisis, little housing stock has been provided by the public sector since the 1980s, Council houses are being sold off at large discounts, and waiting lists continue to grow inexorably.
So why not stop using the words “houses” and “housing”, and refer instead to the re-assuring but utterly meaningless “Sustainable Communities” so that public attention and debate is shifted away from the problem?
George Orwell would have spotted this one right away.