Council confirms option 6 for Inverness West Link Road

The Highland Council has confirmed the preferred route for the Inverness West Link Road, which will provide a new transport link from the Southern Distributor Road at Dores Road to the A82 trunk road via a fixed link across the River Ness and the Caledonian Canal.

It has chosen Option 6, which follows a sweeping alignment along the river bank from Dores Road Roundabout to cross the River Ness at the Precast Yard/Weir.  Thereafter the link road will follow the toe of the Caledonian Canal embankment to a tandem canal bridge arrangement at Tomnahurich. The estimated cost is £27.2 million.

The West Link project is included in the Council’s capital programme with a phased programme of work ready to start in 2014/15
Councillors agreed Option 6is the most deliverable and affordable of the eight options considered during a two year period of consultation and fully recognised the opportunity to enhance sporting facilities in the Bught / Torvean area when building the new link road.

Council Convener Sandy Park said: “Option 6 is deliverable and affordable and the one that gives us the best chance of achieving a start in 2015.”

Provost Jimmy Gray, Chairman of the Council’s Inverness City Committee, said:  “I am convinced that Option 6 provides us with the best solution. We need to make very early progress with this project to ease congestion in the city centre and take full advantage of the opportunities presented in the redesign of the Bught / Torvean area to provide the city with enhanced sporting facilities.”  

Link here

(This is straight from the Council web page Press Release)

Nothing up on Courier yet


UPDATE approx 3pm : Courier now has the following link

Latest Population Stats published today - but they are 2010 based

The GROS has just published the 'Population Projections for Scottish Areas (2010 - based)'


I have just had a quick scan at some of the tables - no time for an in depth read at the moment - but it seems that the 'Net Civilian Migration' for Highland is less than half what was estimated using the 2006/2007 numbers.


All comments gratefully  received.


Main link here


Extracts:


This paper summarises the Registrar General for Scotland’s mid-2010 based population projections for the Council and NHS Board areas of Scotland. The projections are consistent with the 2010-based national population projections, prepared by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) on behalf of the Registrars General for the constituent countries of the UK.


But population projections have limitations.


The population of Scotland is projected to rise by 10 per cent over the next 25 years, from 5.22 million in 2010 to 5.76 million by 2035, and continue to rise into the future. But this pattern is not to be experienced in all areas of Scotland. Some areas are projected to increase in size while others to decrease.