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BID Statement on Eastgate Hostel Works (22.03.19)

In light of recent media coverage (links below) Inverness City Centre BID today issued the following statement:

“In line with representations made by local businesses BID has objected to the erection of barriers on Wednesday in Eastgate Precinct (part of the High Street) by the demolition contractors working at Eastgate Hostel.

BID and the local businesses fully accept that arrangements need to be made to ensure public safety when lorries enter the Precinct to remove/replace skips working at the hostel.  However this happens merely once a day normally early in the morning and takes a maximum of an hour.  

By putting permanent barriers over the normal pedestrian area for 24 hours a day, 7 days a week is in BIDs view an over engineered solution to an issue that needs to be addressed for only one hour daily Monday to Friday.  

BID Manager Mike Smith said “This permanent barriering is damaging footfall, isolating businesses and an unnecessary complicated method of dealing with a problem which occurs for a maximum of 5 hours a week.  On behalf of the local businesses BID continues to make represenations to the Highland Council to require the demolition contractor to put in place a barrier arrangement only when vehicles are entering the area and thus allowing the public free movement at all other times.  

BID has requested the Highland Council to undertake an urgent review as the current arrangements are not proportionate to the risk involved 

Highland News 21.3.19   Inverness Courier 22.3.19

VOTING IS NOW CLOSED FOR THE INVERNESS CITY CENTRE BUSINESS AWARDS 

Following public nominations the city centre businesses were shortlisted to include a total of 94 businesses, charities and other organisations. The public were invited to vote for their favourite businesses via surveymonkey and through paper voting forms. The voting process is now closed and the winners will be announced at the Awards Ceremony on 2nd April.

These awards, organised by Inverness Business District (BID) in conjunction with the Inverness Courier, are held to celebrate the best in Inverness city centre. There are more finalists than ever before and the number of categories, at 13, is also the highest. The shortlist was whittled down from a total of 210 nominated businesses from the public. Inverness BID Manager Mike Smith described the response as fabulous. “It shows how much people value their city centre businesses,” he said. “Within general retail alone we had 30 nominations in the independent category and 30 in the nationals, and even with the charity retailers, which is a much smaller sector, there were 13 nominations. “Certainly there is a lot of excitement among the businesses as well. They look on it as very prestigious to be nominated in this way".

The winner and those highly commended in each category will be awarded at the Inverness City Centre Business Awards ceremony which is beiing staged at the Mercure Hotel on Tuesday 2nd April 2019. Two persons from each shortlisted business has been invited to attend. 

INVERNESS CLASSIC VEHICLE SHOW - 2019 ENTRIES OPEN

Download your entry form here- Classic Vehicle Show 2019 Entry Form

The 11th INVERNESS CLASSIC VEHICLE SHOW takes place on Saturday 11th May 2019 and once again the city centre will have a fascinating variety of vehicles on display for the public to view.  If you would like to bring a vehicle please enter as soon as possible as places are limited and space is restricted.

The event ends at 3pm with a parade finale of vehicles down the High Street from 11am until 3pm. x