Council funds approved for Inverness Botanic Gardens

An Inverness visitor centre is to receive a new name and make-over to help attract more tourists through its doors.

Highland councillors have supported the re-branding and re-launch of the Inverness Floral Hall by approving £39K funds towards a development plan.

Members of the Adult and Children’s Services Committee have given their support to High Life Highland’s business plan to re-brand the Floral hall as “Inverness Botanic Gardens” and to re-develop it as a key visitor attraction for the area.

The proposal for the £111K re-development focuses on the extension of the centre’s café area and improving kitchen facilities to increase and enhance the capacity of the café and to enable the introduction of the sale of an expanded range of goods.

This will enable Highland Life Highland to work with tour operators to attract higher volumes of visitors to Inverness. A new programme of horticultural events and activities will also be organised to encourage repeat visit by local people.

In addition to the £39K contribution from Highland Council, other funds for the project have been secured from the Inverness Common Good Fund (£39K) and the private sector (£33K). High Life Highland will also invest £16K to market and promote the re-developed and re-branded facility.

Councillor Alasdair Christie, Chair of the Council Adult and Children’s Services Committee welcomed the plans for the Inverness Botanic Gardens, he said: “These plans to revitalise the former Inverness Floral Hall; will provide a welcome boost to the visitor attractions complement within Inverness.”

High Life Highland will seek to register ‘Inverness Botanic Gardens’ with the Association of Scottish Visitor Attractions and to promote the facility as a key visitor attraction to encourage more people to visit Inverness. The centre will offer a quality experience, free of charge for visitors to the City.

At present, the Floral Hall attracts 18,000 visitors each year. With this development the aim is to double this figure over of three year period.