Roads spending in Highland

[Nick Noble]

As I was driving to Brora for a meeting last night I could not help but think of how skewed the Highland Councils spending priorities for the Highlands road network are.

There they are currently deciding whether to spend £75 million which they don't have for the new Inverness City West Link Road (http://www.caithness-business.co.uk/article.php?id=2633), or whether they should just spend the entire £25 million they actually have for capital projects.

Now I admit that I only frequent Inverness two or three times per month, but I have never, not once, found the traffic congestion that bad in Inverness that I have thought, gosh, I wish there was a City West Link Road so I could avoid driving on "streets designed for horses and carts" as stated by the Provost Jimmy Gray (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-15869335) at the launch of the new consultation.

What I often find my self thinking, as I did last night is "wouldn't it be good if the Highland Council spent of the £25 million they have available for capital projects on removing some of the particularly winding and twisting stretches of the A9 between Thurso and the Dornoch Firth, and added some overtaking lanes so that I can make this 54 miles journey in something less that the 1hour and 33 minutes it took last night as I had to follow an empty flat bed truck that hardly got above 40mph between Latheron and Helmsdale (and 22 mph for some bits!)

So just interested to know other peoples views.

Should the Highland Council look at areas outwith Inverness for some road spending, or should they continue to act like the Inverness City Council and fix a problem that does not actually appear to me to exist?

[theone]

When speaking about the highlands, people always moan that money is spent in Inverness.
When speaking about Scotland, people always moan that money is spent in the central belt.
When speaking about the UK, people always moan that money is spent in the SE of England.

I don't know enough about the Inverness traffic system to know if a bypass is needed.

I'd like to see money spent on the A9, particularly from Latheron to Berridale. But a trip to Inverness has never taken me longer than 2Hrs 15min, which is normally better than the A96, a road used by more people.

And £25M doesn't go too far either. If memory serves me right the mile and a bit stretch of road north of Helmsdale cost £6M.

[Eilanboy]

Nick your post has the wrong facts threfore don,t know how anyone can cast a vote for something that doesn,t contain the truth.
The roads you mention have nothing to do with the Highland Council as they are part of the trunk road network looked after by Transerv on behalf of Transport Scotland.

[weezer 316]

Good point theone, thats exactly what happens whe it comes to money being spent. Always London/central belt/regional centre!

I would like to see soem money spent on a thurso bypass, I swear is only a matter of time until something goes badly wrong in the middle of the town with somedodgy materials.

[Nick Noble]

Nick your post has the wrong facts threfore don,t know how anyone can cast a vote for something that doesn,t contain the truth.
The roads you mention have nothing to do with the Highland Council as they are part of the trunk road network looked after by Transerv on behalf of Transport Scotland.

Once the putative link road is built that too will almost certainly become part of the trunk road network, and be maintained by transerv.

If the highland council can build a new road to link 2 existing trunk roads in Inverness then they can just as well build a new section of road linking between 2 sections of existing trunk road further north.

The basic question remains, would people rather see £25 million plus being spent to fix a perceived problem in Inverness, or to remove a real problem along the A9 which is one of the worst trunk roads in the country.

[theone]

The basic question remains, would people rather see £25 million plus being spent to fix a perceived problem in Inverness, or to remove a real problem along the A9 which is one of the worst trunk roads in the country

I'm sure the majority of the 24,000 or so people in Caithness would go for the latter, whilst the majority of the 70,000 or so in Invernesshire would go for the former.

But, as has already been pointed out, the Highland Council is not responsible for the A9. So the poll question is invalid.

[Nick Noble]

I'm sure the majority of the 24,000 or so people in Caithness would go for the latter, whilst the majority of the 70,000 or so in Invernesshire would go for the former.

But, as has already been pointed out, the Highland Council is not responsible for the A9. So the poll question is invalid.

The poll question is valid as it asks should the council prioritise roads spending outwith Inverness, it does not specifically ask if they should pay to upgrade the A9.

Given that approximately two thirds of the population of the highlands lives outwith Inverness, and yet needs to visit Inverness to access services which are not available locally is it not time that the Highland Council stopped being so city focused?

Interestingly the council are having a good accessible range of public consultations regarding this development which undoubtedly will go ahead in some form.

ALL the consultations are to take place in Inverness. Now given that this is a major spending project being undertaken by the Highland Council, and not by an Inverness Council should the exhibition / presentations not reach out to the rest of the people paying the bill for this investment just to see what they think too?

[theone]

The poll question is valid as it asks should the council prioritise roads spending outwith Inverness, it does not specifically ask if they should pay to upgrade the A9.

Ok, fair enough, I was reading your first post in conjunction with the question.


........... should the exhibition / presentations not reach out to the rest of the people paying the bill for this investment just to see what they think too?

Yes, I would think so, and I'm sure they will. I'd imagine anyone can attend.

BUT.......


Given that approximately one third of the population of the highlands lives outwith Inverness.......

That means that two thirds of the people paying the bill live in the Inverness area.

That's probably why the Highland Council are percieved to be so "Inveness focussed".




That's Democracy for you............

[Nick Noble]

My apologies to theone, I inadvertently stated one third of the population live outwith Inverness, in fact two thirds live outwith Inverness, and therefore the point you make regarding democracy stands, but facing the opposite way around...

[theone]

My apologies to theone, I inadvertently stated one third of the population live outwith Inverness, in fact two thirds live outwith Inverness, and therefore the point you make regarding democracy stands, but facing the opposite way around...

Then I stand corrected also!

EDIT:

Maybe wandering a bit, but I wonder how council expenditure outside invernesshire compares with that within it?