Statutory Traffic Regulation Order (TRO) process begins on proposal for Academy Street
The Traffic Regulation Order (TRO) process for statutory consultees on the proposed design for Academy Street has been reissued.
In addition to statutory consultees, which include emergency services and community councils, who had previously been consulted in December 2023, The Highland Council has also invited business membership organisations to participate in the process. Inverness BID, Inverness Chamber of Commerce, Prosper, FSB and Visit Inverness Loch Ness all have the opportunity to provide feedback on the proposal by June 16th.
The statutory phase of the TRO must take place ahead of the public consultation phase, which The Highland Council hopes to begin in the summer.
The TRO is an important part of the process and an opportunity for key services and organisations that represent local residents and the business community to feed in their thoughts on the proposal before it goes out for public consultation.
The proposed design for Academy Street is part of the overall vision for the city centre, which is to create an attractive, greener, high-footfall place where people can comfortably live, work and visit for a wide range of services and facilities and to spend their leisure time.
The next steps in this project will see the public consultation on the final TRO for Academy Street go live during the summer. At this stage, all members of the public are welcome to provide feedback on the proposal for Academy Street. All comments will then be reviewed and included in a report presented to the City of Inverness Area Committee when it meets in November this year. A decision will then be taken on whether to proceed and apply for construction funding.
The Highland Council recently published full reports from the Traffic Impact and Economic Impact Assessments undertaken by independent consultancy WSP. The findings presented a balanced view and were very much based on the worst-case scenario.
The Traffic Impact Assessment (TIA) found that there would be no significant impact on the road operation in Inverness post implementation of the scheme and that displacement of traffic from Academy Street could be accommodated on the wider network.
The Economic Impact Assessment (EIA) found that the wider economic impacts of the Academy Street proposals could generate benefits of between £1.5 million and £4 million, mainly driven by the additional retail footfall and visitor expenditure which is expected to reach as much as £1.5m and £2.1m respectively over the next five years.
The full findings of the EIA and TIA can be found here and The Highland Council is using these to inform mitigation measures.
For further information on the proposal for Academy Street, visit https://academystreetproposals.commonplace.is/ and https://www.highland.gov.uk/academystreet.