Nairn Road Re-alignment

[Scarlet Pimple]

http://www.inverness-courier.co.uk/News/Preferred-route-for-A96-dualling-between-Inverness-and-Nairn-revealed-by-Transport-Scotland-03102014.htm

 

I wonder if this proposal , with a huge price tag attached to it, is something to do with development of the oil fields off the North East Coast.

 

And, if so, what benefits will accrue directly to Inverness City?

 

Are there any proposals to build oil terminals or the like.?

 

[Oddquine]

http://www.inverness-courier.co.uk/News/Preferred-route-for-A96-dualling-between-Inverness-and-Nairn-revealed-by-Transport-Scotland-03102014.htm

 

I wonder if this proposal , with a huge price tag attached to it, is something to do with development of the oil fields off the North East Coast.

 

And, if so, what benefits will accrue directly to Inverness City?

 

Are there any proposals to build oil terminals or the like.?

 

Not that I'm being parochial or anything.......but there is more to the North of Scotland/Highlands than Inverness City.....which already has a bypass.  Inverness doesn't have to benefit directly from everything that gets spent up North, you know.

[Charles Bannerman]

 

 there is more to the North of Scotland/Highlands than Inverness City.....which already has a bypass. 

Not as such we don't. A distributor road has been built from Inshes to Holm Mains and we have been waiting for years to get the final but vital link from Holm Mains to Torvean. In fact part of the agreement whereby Tesco got their Holm Mains site was that Tesco would pay Highland Council £340,000 - provided the link road was completed by 2011. Three odd years later they still seem to be wrangling about the route and the project, in effect, hasn't even started.

.

 

[+Tree]

 

 

 there is more to the North of Scotland/Highlands than Inverness City.....which already has a bypass. 

Not as such we don't. A distributor road has been built from Inshes to Holm Mains and we have been waiting for years to get the final but vital link from Holm Mains to Torvean. In fact part of the agreement whereby Tesco got their Holm Mains site was that Tesco would pay Highland Council £340,000 - provided the link road was completed by 2011. Three odd years later they still seem to be wrangling about the route and the project, in effect, hasn't even started.

.

 

 

 

You never know Charles, one day some journalist may ask what the HC ever did with the few £m received for the Inverness Common Good land for Morrison's store site and knockdown £10m for Eastgate for Inverness Common Good land (earmarked from the cross-link road at the time)!

 

The alleged answer does not have many digits!

[Charles Bannerman]

 

 

 

You never know Charles, one day some journalist may ask what the HC ever did with the few £m received for the Inverness Common Good land for Morrison's store site and knockdown £10m for Eastgate for Inverness Common Good land (earmarked from the cross-link road at the time)!

 

The alleged answer does not have many digits!

 

They probably used it for a firework display or a Town Twinning beano, or to promote a completely unnecessary second Highland Games at the Bught last month where virtually nobody turned up to watch wrinklies in kilts throwing things.

[Scarlet Pimple]

Whoa! Oddquine

I was just interested in learning why this road to Nairn is so important. I know there may be a proposal in place to improve the road to Aberdeen but why so much money on this strip alone?

My interest is primarily Inverness city because this is my place of birth so surely you agree that I amentitled to ask a question about that? That doesn't mean that all that happens north of Inverness is not worthy or should not get attention--it's just that I don't know much about territory above Inverness City. But why not go ahead and expand this thread with your concerns?

[Oddquine]

Whoa! Oddquine

I was just interested in learning why this road to Nairn is so important. I know there may be a proposal in place to improve the road to Aberdeen but why so much money on this strip alone?

My interest is primarily Inverness city because this is my place of birth so surely you agree that I amentitled to ask a question about that? That doesn't mean that all that happens north of Inverness is not worthy or should not get attention--it's just that I don't know much about territory above Inverness City. But why not go ahead and expand this thread with your concerns?

 

Don't think it is the road to Nairn per se,.....think it is the Aberdeen/Inverness connection...which is needing upgraded, particularly as a lot of people from the towards Inverness end now commute daily to Aberdeen,...but Nairn does sorely need a bypass and there would be little point in bypassing Nairn and later having to go back again and dual the road from Inverness to a bypass when upgrading the rest of the A96.  The A9 North of Inverness needs a lot of work done as well...but in the end it is down to traffic load, and, with the best will in the world, traffic flow, the further North you go, is a lot less, so I suspect that it will take a fair while before there is a dual carriageway to Thurso or Wick. .

 

Sorry I snapped at you, Scarlet.....but I have been rather hacked off with a lot of the posts on the now closed independence thread......and yours reminded me of the eternal periodic "what has the SNP ever done for the Highlands" mantra on it.....and we all know that, by the Highlands, those saying that it is hard done by. actually meant Inverness is hard done by. . 

 

At the end of the day, every area outside a main town believes that the main town gets everything, and those who live in the main town think they are entitled to everything because everyone can go there to access the new whatever it is (I was nearly 10 years in Elgin and they used to whine any time Forres or Buckie got anything.) . Lived my first fifty years in Forres......and we whined eternally about the amount of money which was spent in Elgin....and the whole time I lived in Caithness, the Highland Council  was spending all the money in Inverness, according to the locals there.  We all know, that whatever is spent on any area it would never be enough for many in that area.or money being wasted on the wrong thing because "we" need X more than "they" need  Y.

[Charles Bannerman]

 

 

At the end of the day, every area outside a main town believes that the main town gets everything, and those who live in the main town think they are entitled to everything because everyone can go there to access the new whatever it is (I was nearly 10 years in Elgin and they used to whine any time Forres or Buckie got anything.) . Lived my first fifty years in Forres......and we whined eternally about the amount of money which was spent in Elgin....and the whole time I lived in Caithness, the Highland Council  was spending all the money in Inverness, according to the locals there.  We all know, that whatever is spent on any area it would never be enough for many in that area.or money being wasted on the wrong thing because "we" need X more than "they" need  Y.

 

Oddquine.. I can only commend you for your insight into the conflicting perceptions of priority between major population centres and peripheral areas. However such a secure handle does rather seem to fly in the face of your repeated complaints about "London" (and corresponding Referendum-led euphemisms) elsewhere in recent months.

[Kingsmills]

 

 

 

At the end of the day, every area outside a main town believes that the main town gets everything, and those who live in the main town think they are entitled to everything because everyone can go there to access the new whatever it is (I was nearly 10 years in Elgin and they used to whine any time Forres or Buckie got anything.) . Lived my first fifty years in Forres......and we whined eternally about the amount of money which was spent in Elgin....and the whole time I lived in Caithness, the Highland Council  was spending all the money in Inverness, according to the locals there.  We all know, that whatever is spent on any area it would never be enough for many in that area.or money being wasted on the wrong thing because "we" need X more than "they" need  Y.

 

Oddquine.. I can only commend you for your insight into the conflicting perceptions of priority between major population centres and peripheral areas. However such a secure handle does rather seem to fly in the face of your repeated complaints about "London" (and corresponding Referendum-led euphemisms) elsewhere in recent months.

 

 

Even with your track record on the matter, it is astonishing that you can turn a thread on a welcome and much delayed improvement to the Highland infrastructure facilitated and financed by the current Holyrood administration into yet more wholly illogical and ill considered Nat bashing. Surely you can contrive to have a go it the First Minister and his likely successor and work in at least one reference to Anglophobia if you really try....

[dougiedanger]

Think it was a couple of those nasty Nats who administered the swirlies to the young CB. :(

[The Mantis]

I think there must have been a couple of swirlies at Edinburgh Uni too

[Charles Bannerman]

 

 

 

Even with your track record on the matter, it is astonishing that you can turn a thread on a welcome and much delayed improvement to the Highland infrastructure facilitated and financed by the current Holyrood administration into yet more wholly illogical and ill considered Nat bashing. Surely you can contrive to have a go it the First Minister and his likely successor and work in at least one reference to Anglophobia if you really try....

 

Of my stance against Nationalism and the SNP I am unrepentant. The cause of the state of affairs in which we find ourselves is the complete disarray of Labour and the Lib Dems in Scotland and the unpopularity of the Tories. And its effect - having our hospitals, schools, law courts etc run and now some of our taxes determined by a single issue pressure group whose every action is dictated by the single objective of separation - needs to be exposed at every opportunity.

The SNP, or course, took that every opportunity to undermine and demonise the "Tory bogeymen" during the entire referendum campaign, even to the extent of spreading scare stories about privatisation of NHS Scotland - which of course has been under SNP control for the last seven years.

It seems the SNP are quite happy to dish it out, but in reverse... well as Corporal Jones would say:

"They don't like it up 'em sah... the do not like it up 'em!"

[Scarlet Pimple]

As IHE might say--ask a straightforward question about a road and start a hornet's nest about anything but a highway.

Oddquine . Don't worry, it's the same old, same old in Canada. A municipality gets a big, necessary bridge and then tolls follow, then bickering about the tolls, then bickering about tolls charged for crossings that the billee claim they never made.....

I knew about the large improvements on the cards from Inverness to Aberdeen, so I assume these will be done in increments due to the huge cost.

[dougiedanger]

I think there must have been a couple of swirlies at Edinburgh Uni too

 

Someone certainly p*shed in his chips.

[Charles Bannerman]

 

I think there must have been a couple of swirlies at Edinburgh Uni too

 

Someone certainly p*shed in his chips.

 

Worse than that... in Edinburgh they do salt and BROWN SAUCE

[Oddquine]

 

 

 

 

Even with your track record on the matter, it is astonishing that you can turn a thread on a welcome and much delayed improvement to the Highland infrastructure facilitated and financed by the current Holyrood administration into yet more wholly illogical and ill considered Nat bashing. Surely you can contrive to have a go it the First Minister and his likely successor and work in at least one reference to Anglophobia if you really try....

 

Of my stance against Nationalism and the SNP I am unrepentant. The cause of the state of affairs in which we find ourselves is the complete disarray of Labour and the Lib Dems in Scotland and the unpopularity of the Tories. And its effect - having our hospitals, schools, law courts etc run and now some of our taxes determined by a single issue pressure group whose every action is dictated by the single objective of separation - needs to be exposed at every opportunity.

The SNP, or course, took that every opportunity to undermine and demonise the "Tory bogeymen" during the entire referendum campaign, even to the extent of spreading scare stories about privatisation of NHS Scotland - which of course has been under SNP control for the last seven years.

It seems the SNP are quite happy to dish it out, but in reverse... well as Corporal Jones would say:

"They don't like it up 'em sah... the do not like it up 'em!"

 

 

Now, now, (and going off thread topic),Charles, the complete disarray of NuLabour and the LibDems, and the unpopularity of the Tories, going by the polls in England yesterday, is not down to the SNP in Scotland, methinks. It is down to the disarray of NuLabour,the LibDems and the Tories in the UK.  In Scotland, NuLabour, the Lib Dems and Tories  problems are not, and never have been down to the SNP per se, but down to the fact that, when it comes to protecting Scotland and the Scottish people from Westminster's  policies they are a efficacious as a chocolate fireguard protecting us from a bonfire. The SNP filled a hole which was perceived in Scotland as needing to be filled, and have grown over the years, particularly since the 1960s/1970s because Westminster has been enlarging that hole with regular monotony. Where we are now is down to Westminster policies and the democratic deficit within the Union as it is currently set up. If there had not already been an SNP for decades, we'd have been compelled to invent it by now to have a voice Westminster would hear.

 

The SNP has been in existence in its current form since the 1930's, and certainly it was a pressure group, as all new political parties tend to be.  In their case, one with a core vote (if not necessarily a membership) of people like me, who would/will vote for independence, as we think that would to the benefit of Scotland and the Scots, even if we were to be personally worse off in the short/medium term.......just as there are people who would, like Jimmy Hood, NuLabour MP, who would vote to maintain the Union as it is now, even if it could be proven that Scotland and the Scots would be better off out of the Union. Bear in mind that there have been around 40 attempts to get Home Rule for Scotland, since 1707, both via Parliamentary bills and popular petitions, including the Scottish Covenant in the 1950s and the Claim of Right in the 1980s, which, incidentally,had nothing to do with the SNP. The SNP is just the present driver of an independence bus which picks up and drops off passengers all the time, but is starting to fill up with people intending to continue right on to the bus terminal.  

 

As a pressure group, it has done well.  Without it, we would not have had devolution at all, even at the paltry level we currently enjoy.....and if we get (which I suspect we won't) anything approaching Devo-Max/Federalism, that too would be as a result of the pressure engendered by the referendum, won when we democratically voted for the SNP in a majority in 2011 with that intention in their manifesto. If the "VOW" is fudged, then we won't be going away any time soon, and many more of the independence bus passengers won't be getting off at the next stop.

 

Regarding scare stories.we missed the fracking one, though to be fair I did, I think, mention it beforehand, re Ian Wood (though maybe not on here) and we did say that UKIP was a danger to the two party UK system.and more nationalist than any Scottish party, and we did agree with UK Labour's (after the event statement) that the NHS in Scotland was in danger of being privatised  due to the way the NHS in England was going...but it is all so much worse than we thought it was going to be, having listened to the highlights of all UK party conferences. An example.....http://anotherangryvoice.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/12-things-help-to-work.html.  and the icing on the union cake...... http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2787372/The-state-pension-fund-run-cash-year-Amount-handed-future-generations-derisory-thanks-flaw-Government-s-accounts.html

 

Scarlet., and to get back to the thread,  though I thought I'd replied to you last night,...it will be done bit by bit as it always has been with roads in the whole UK....what they have to do to fix perceived problems first......and then join up the bits later. Wonder if the reason the whole Inverness to Nairn road is being looked at in the one tranche is because it is also the main road which feeds the airport. Hope it doesn't take as long as getting an almost decent road from Inverness to Wick did though.

[Kingsmills]

I know I am as guilty as any but maybe time to get this thread back on topic.

[Charles Bannerman]

I know I am as guilty as any but maybe time to get this thread back on topic.

Agreed. So, in the best traditions of Cicero, I will simply make the rather paralyptic response that I will not respond to Oddquine by pointing out that I was earlier referring specifically to the self inflicted disarray of Labour in Scotland and to the electoral no-go areas which the Lib Dems and Tories in Scotland have made of themselves. Now, since this has allowed the SNP to fill the resulting political vacuum we can therefore return to the Life Of Brian, and hence to the original question.

Edited October 10, 2014 by Charles Bannerman

[Oddquine]

 

I know I am as guilty as any but maybe time to get this thread back on topic.

Agreed. So, in the best traditions of Cicero, I will simply make the rather paralyptic response that I will not respond to Oddquine by pointing out that I was earlier referring specifically to the self inflicted disarray of Labour in Scotland and to the electoral no-go areas which the Lib Dems and Tories in Scotland have made of themselves. Now, since this has allowed the SNP to fill the resulting political vacuum we can therefore return to the Life Of Brian, and hence to the original question.

 

 

And I was pointing out the disarray in England of Labour, LibDems and Tories....which is well on the way to allowing UKIP to fill their political vacuum. You don't get a political vacuum without the political vacuity which has been, and is being, so amply demonstrated by Westminster Unionist Parties, of all shades of the right, to far right, political spectrum, on both sides of the border.

[Charles Bannerman]

 

 

 

 

And I was pointing out the disarray in England of Labour, LibDems and Tories....which is well on the way to allowing UKIP to fill their political vacuum. You don't get a political vacuum without the political vacuity which has been, and is being, so amply demonstrated by Westminster Unionist Parties, of all shades of the right, to far right, political spectrum, on both sides of the border.

 

Yes but much as I am sure you would like to have another go at "Westminster" and "England", I think Kingsmills has fairly made the point that this thread on the Nairn bypass etc is in danger of wandering off topic. Consequently, I would suggest that concentrating on how the SNP got into a position to be able to facilitate this A96 development - i.e. thanks to the abject weakness of the other parties in Scotland, especially Labour - at least begins to steer us back in the right direction.

[Scotty]

and so, back on the road ........ 

 

does this mean ----naaaaaaiiiiiiiirrrrrrrrrnnnnnnnn---- will no longer be the fastest town in Scotland .... shame!

 

Having said that the A96 has needed upgraded for decades (under the purview of governments of all stripes) so I am glad it finally seems to be happening. there are stretches of that road that are almost as bad as the blackspots on the A9

[Scarlet Pimple]

I am still working on Charles's  "paralyptic". 

 Is it something to do with paratroopers landing at the Olympics? Or paragliders doing elipses?

The Oxford English Dictionary is not helpful on this one which can lead one into a state of paralysis.

And that's what you get for the partaking of his comments which are frequently partially this and particularly that but always  with pathos. Not being too parsimonious, like, to paraphrase a coin.

 

But I am pleased at the road repairs explanations, all of which makes sense. It looks like it will be a drawn-out affair though?

 

Just a wee aside...I was going up 224 Street in Maple Ridge recently and  spotted a gang of workmen  crowded round  a hole in the sidewalk(pavement). Six of them were looking down and there must have been at least one guy of interest working in the hole. And I realized that Municipal workers/contractors  are indeed  the same the world over........ no wonder my Property taxes are the second highest in the Province of B.C. and the joke about this has a basis in truth. Same old, same old.

[Kingsmills]

and so, back on the road ........ 

 

does this mean ----naaaaaaiiiiiiiirrrrrrrrrnnnnnnnn---- will no longer be the fastest town in Scotland .... shame!

 

Having said that the A96 has needed upgraded for decades (under the purview of governments of all stripes) so I am glad it finally seems to be happening. there are stretches of that road that are almost as bad as the blackspots on the A9

 

Being a regular traveler on both, I actually find the A96 slower and more frustrating than the A9 so delighted to see both being upgraded at long last.

[Charles Bannerman]

and so, back on the road ........ 

 

does this mean ----naaaaaaiiiiiiiirrrrrrrrrnnnnnnnn---- will no longer be the fastest town in Scotland .... shame!

 

 

But at least when you come over from Canada it will be quicker to take the "burrrn to Nurrrn" (Except that by the time the project is finished "the burrrn" will probably be approaching middle age!)

[Charles Bannerman]

I am still working on Charles's  "paralyptic". 

 

Paralypsis is a rhetorical device where an issue is highlighted by the claim that the speaker isn't going to talk about it. The Roman orator Cicero was a noted exponent of it. The adjective is "paralyptic" (as opposed to paralytic!  )