History of city street to be highlighted in public consultation day

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Photo from Am Baile showing Academy St (date unkown)

 

Photos, drawings and plans from the Highland Archive Centre and Inverness Museum and Art Gallery showing Academy Street in years gone by will be used to highlight the importance the heritage of this part of the city has had and, it is hoped, inspire new creative ideas for regeneration.  

Following the success of the first consultation held in January, this second interactive public consultation day will run on Tuesday 10 March from 2pm – 8pm in The Ironworks to give people the opportunity to come along have their say and speak to the project team. 

Highlife Highland will have a selection of images on display which show how shop fronts looked on the street through the decades and give a better understanding on what the Townscape Heritage project aims to achieve by bringing vacant buildings back to use and reinstating original shop fronts.  

Strategic Project Officer Lorna MacLennan said:  “We had a good response to the consultation sessions we held in January so I hope people will again come along and take part. It’s their chance to find out more about the Townscape, raise any issues and put forward suggestions. Academy Street is the key gateway to Inverness City Centre for most people arriving by car, bus or train and it would be fantastic to see the historic public places restored so they can be enjoyed by a whole new generation.  I think people will find the archive photos fascinating and they will help to illustrate what we are trying to achieve.”  

Lorna and her team are busy developing work packages as part of the Stage 2 application to the Heritage Lottery Fund. Last week the Planning, Development and Infrastructure Committee agreed to allocate £550k from the Capital programme to go towards the project. £200k revenue has already been earmarked for the project from existing Service budgets and financial support from the Inverness City Heritage Trust is expected to be announced before the end of March.

 

 

26 Feb 2015