SNP commits to dualling A96 and Nairn bypass
The good news is that in its far-reaching transport review, the SNP has included dualling the A9 and A96 between Inverness and Nairn as top priorities – and included a Nairn by-pass in its list.
The bad news is that the transport review is scheduled for major works over 20 years, so the danger is that a Nairn bypass and dualling the A96 between Inverness and Nairn may end up at the tail of a limited budget likely to be hogged by the new Firth of Forth bridge and dualling the A9.
Still, at least the Nairn by-pass and A96 are still very visibly on the table, and the publicity can only be welcome.
You can read the SNP’s transport plan here.
However, as there are a large number of improvements tabled, there are plenty of reasons to be cautiously optimistic. So far we’ve seen much more commitment of talk of these much needed transport improvements, rather than any real action.
Still, it’s on the table, it’s visible – we just need to ensure visibility is maintained, and hopefully Danny Alexander can continue the good work he’s done pushing this so far.
Meanwhile, while looking into this, I noticed a item from a couple of years ago that had the A96 voted worst trunk road in Scotland.
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Let’s not celebrate just yet. 20 years is a long time in politics, and in planning.
But here’s the heretical view. Dualling the A96 between Inverness and Nairn would be a disaster for Nairn’s survival as an independent town and tourist destination. If the dualled section ends at Nairn, this would be the one way of guaranteeing beyond doubt that Nairn would become nothing but a commuter suburb of Inverness, with ribbon development along the road and distribution businesses at the airport interchange.
A Nairn bypass, on the other hand, BEFORE dualling the A96, offers a decent chance of shaping Nairn’s inevitable development according to Nairn’s own priorities so that it incorporates more than just housing estates.
The problem is, I think Nairn is already being treated as a suburb of Inverness, if the withdrawal of government and administrative services from Nairn to Inverness over the past few years is anything to go by.
It’s also been reported in the Nairnshire that developer funds from Nairn could be targeted for dualling the A96 from Inverness to the airport – rather than be used for Nairn directly.
When you look at the dereliction around the A96 within Nairn – the abandoned church, cinema, bus station, community centre and petrol stations – there isn’t much suggestion that investment in Nairn is a priority.
Sure, there’s a new community centre, and the police station is to be rebuilt, but it too easily looks like investment is increasingly drawn away from Nairn and that redevelopment of Nairn itself remains very far behind Inverness itself as a priority.
I honestly can’t see how a Nairn bypass before dualling the A96 would help turn things around any differently.
I think the main problem is a two-fold issue of lack of vision for Nairn, and lack of funding for anything that may be suggested.
The failure to pedestrianise Nairn High Street as a clear example of how Nairn could have become more family and tourist-focused – and the difficulties for Sainsburys to bring much needed services – as clear examples of the difficulty of investing in the town, and at present there is no suggestion of anything to turn this around.
Dualling the A96 from Inverness to Nairn offers potential for Nairn to position itself as a main commuter centre – against competition from west of Inverness around the Beauly area – and therefore demand extra investment in services to cater for any such expansion in the population.
Even still, the dangers remain that:
1. The SNP review seems to be a wish-list with no given commitment on the A96 or Nairn bypass,
2. Nairn needs a vision – not a plan to be hijacked by rules lawyers – but a general guiding vision of how the town should look to develop,
3. Nairn needs a stronger voice – at present there seems to be a withering of Nairn’s political authority,
4. More commitment to keep funding within Nairn – too much of Nairn’s generated income is being targeted away from Nairn, leaving opportnity for sustained growth and development atrophied.
I think overall what ourselves and others probably agree is that the existing status quo is detrimental to Nairn, and the town needs to assert itself further as a Highland centre. The moot question is probably more on the details of how we turn it around.
The challenge still remains on how Nairn can leverage potential transport and business developments to work in the interests of the people of Nairn directly, rather than Inverness.
2c.
Aye, spontaneous street parties broke out throughout the town last night as the incredible news broke.
I find it very difficult to get excited about plans that may or may not happen in 20 years time. Recent events have surely shown that our economy is not something anyone can rely upon, and for me the whole SNP policy smacks of vote gathering (Although I doubt they will enjoy many in Elgin)
If, and it is a capital IF they the NATS are still in power at the right time, we as a country have the money for such projects, we are still running about in cars, then the proposed super highway between Nairn and Inverness is going to become a super car park as folk at either end of the dream piece of tarmac await the traffic to filter into the respective towns – it is bad enough now.
I would vote for a radical improvement in public transport but maybe that does not fit into the ‘heh, look at me, I’ve just got this new car’ view of the masses for whom cars have become fashion accessories as long as someone will still give them the credit to buy one.
Sorry if I missed the street parties.
gmc – I share your scepticism about the commitment of policymakers, and the timescale. But what I liked was your comment
“the proposed super highway between Nairn and Inverness is going to become a super car park as folk at either end of the dream piece of tarmac await the traffic to filter into the respective towns…”
That’s the best and most concise critique I have yet seen of the A96 Corridor plan.
To make towns more civilised, through-traffic has to be separated and diverted round them. Hence the argument for a Nairn bypass first. You only have to look at how it works in Forres, or Huntly, or Pitlochry on the A9, to see that a bypass makes sense as a first phase. After that (if there’s money and political will) let the planners think about dualling the bits in between.
But to dual the A96 between Inverness and Nairn, before (or without) a bypass, would be the worst of all worlds.
Anyone notice that the P&J had closing the Nairn Planning Office as part of Highland Council’s plan to save £10million? If you want to object to anything soon then you better get ready to jump into your car or bus and go to Inverness. We could always combine attending planning meetings with a trip to one of the four Tescos?
In the Nairnshire this week one of the politicians (apologies, I foroget which one) made a good case for the by-pass before the dual carriageway.
To paraphrase:
“There’s no point dualling the A96 into a bottleneck at Nairn”
Suddenly it seems like common sense.
We risk going off-topic, but Des’ comment about the Highland Council’s latest bit of centralisation (the plan to relocate Nairn’s planning office to Inverness) leads me to wonder how the Council reconciles this and similar recent decisions such as those affecting the courts, with their stated policy as set out in the Ministerially-approved Highland Structure Plan. It says (paras 1.5.13 to 1.5.15):
“If services are centralised not only does this make access more difficult but it has longer term effects on communities. As well as making them less responsive to customer needs, it tends to encourage population movement into central conurbations….Clearly delivery of services whether public or private sector, has to be on a cost-effective basis, but an over-emphasis on this can have highly negative impacts on the viability of rural communities and businesses. [Policies] will require a pattern of dispersed employment. This is particularly true in the Inner Moray Firth area where… there is a need to provide support for the regional and sub-regional centres… As a major employer, the Council also needs to consider whether its services are sufficiently devolved. New technology means that even core services need not have all their staff in the same location and teleworking and use of outposted staff are realistic options.”
Couldn’t have put it better myself! Now who is holding the Council accountable for its failure to respect and adhere to its own explicit strategy? I wonder if we’ll hear the elected representatives of Nairn standing up not just for the town’s interests, but for the very principles and policies to which they are (supposedly) committed.
Damn good call – the Highland Structure Plan can be found here:
http://www.highland.gov.uk/yourenvironment/planning/developmentplans/structureplan/thehighlandstructureplan.htm
The quoted section is from the following PDF:
http://www.highland.gov.uk/NR/rdonlyres/71C92B1A-CC12-429A-80F6-30A9CC31AA0F/0/sp2001part_one.pdf
structure plans, local plans, I’m a cynic, I think they don’t work both ways, they simply tell us what we can’t have but the Council do as they wish regardless of any plans. Just another stick to beat vanishing local democracy with?