Inverness West Ward Forum
Inverness West Ward Forum
Theme: “Roads and Buses in our Community”
Projectile Hall, Inverness Leisure, Bught Park
Thursday 8 May at 6.30pm
Refreshments will be available from 6.00pm
Canal crossings
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.
Progress on plastics recycling
Highland Council has moved forward with a decision by the TEC Services Committee on Thursday 10th March to provide recycling facilities for plastic bottles at its main recycling centres, at an estimated cost of £44,000 per annum.
Apart from the main Inverness recycling centre at Henderson Drive in the Longman, the service will also be provided in Wick, Thurso, Alness, Granish (Aviemore), Nairn, Fort William, Dingwall and Tain.
Plastics will also be collected in the Council’s monthly mixed recycling collections in rural areas.
This means that Highland Council has joined with the majority of other Scottish councils (about two-thirds) who have some form of collections for plastics, though these vary greatly. Whilst in the main they collect plastic bottles at recycling centres some do collect at the kerb side in at least part of their area. Overall this is a service in its early stages almost everywhere.