Row S

It was not so long ago that the Council was prepared to ignore its policy for open space protection to allow roads to be built (1) from the SDR Eagle roundabout into Drakies and (2) to wipe out a well established equipped play area on the long established Drakies buffer land to serve a spurious housing site south of the Police HQ. The large green shed shown in the photo in committee this morning is not a green keepers' shed. It is the Inverness Kart Raceway building, which was also built on the Fairways open space. 🤔

Yes, I saw that. I got the impression that most councillors want to approve it but as the technical objections had not been addressed by the applicant they felt they couldn't support it today. Also now have time to explain the 'community benefits' (to ICT). Best outcome in the circumstances.

The nearest houses are about 300 metres from the storage compounds. The Travelodge is about 50m away. No objections from the nearest residents, office occupiers or Travelodge. Lobbying does work in some cases but is normally done by the applicants (ILI not ICTFC).

Yes, it's called lobbying and still happens for some planning applications despite being frowned upon by officials and against Standards and Ethics in local government guidelines. Only 5 busy bodies and one neighbouring community council objected. Very low public interest compared with proposals for 800 houses and a new primary school on the former golf course. I feel that Council Planning officials are applying double standards with National Planning Framework 4 when it comes to ICT's interests. They are happy to see our stadium and its car parks zoned for business and industry in the new Local Development Plan and be part of the Green Freeport area, contrary to other policies of NPF4. Yet they choose to use that document to try and reject a renewable energy development on a very small proportion of a disused golf course, which isn't even "public" open space.

I've been feeling the same since about 2017. The board realised that the heights of 2015 could never be sustained as there wasn't the funds or the fan base to stay at that level.

Sadly, I can't disagree. Rather than give Dodds a 2 year contract the Board should have shown some ambition and appointed Warren, Tremarco and Draper. In fact they should have done that in 2016 instead of Foran.

Need to shore up the defence and central midfield, plus need a tall target man up front to help Billy. Looked like a bad injury for young Nicholson. On the plus side some nice play from Longstaff early on and Bray when he came on. Looks like the Dundee game will be a pre-season warm up.

Still on the bus coming home. At least we made them work for it. Shook them by scoring but not enough though and too late. If only they could have done that more throughout the match. Still, the players were a credit and we should be proud of what they achieved against the odds again. 👏 Yes, the Gardyne gnome is a *****. Tomorrow we're having a party cos County's going down!

Eventually got a megabus/citylink coach booked to and from Hampden this afternoon. Cost me £1 with my concession card. Now to get a ticket for a seat next to mates direct from the club shop on Monday.

I tried to book on one of the megabus or citylink coaches earlier. I can only get a single ticket to Hampden but not a return. Wtf is that about? 🤔

I see that Citylink and Megabus have not factored in the huge delays on the North approach to Perth just now. This is adding between 1 and 2 hours to the journey.

Utter disrespect if the SFA move the final away from the traditional 3 pm ko time. They should be told to GTF.

Jeepers!! Does the SFA really want folk to attend? Those prices and a 12:15 ko doesn’t make it attractive. Will be hard to get more than the 2003 low attendance at the semi v Dundee. Looks like we'll be saving ourselves for the final. 🤪

Decent call. I'd add Draper and an experienced hand. Has Donald Park retired or is he still with the SFA?

Big clear out required, which will be hastened by part time football. I still feel there has been a deliberate attempt to run things down after the dizzy heights of 2014/15. Covid just accelerated that process.

I've been saying that since 2016. Last chance saloon from me at the Killie cup game. After that rugby will have my undivided attention.

Time to move S94 back into the NS and abandon the idea of covering the WS. The club don't want that to happen anyway, given the obstacles they keep bringing up.

A bad start to my evening on Tuesday when we discovered 2 mins before kick off that the club had sold tickets for the same seats we purchased to the Main Stand ST holders who normally sit there prior to the original date for the tie! Luckily there were enough spare seats elsewhere that were sheltered from the swirling rain.

SFA panel to meet on Friday to consider action against Queens Park. Euan Henderson was not registered before the original date of the tie so should not have played on Tuesday night. Knowing our luck the SFA might just fine them and let them through - the Central Belt Mafia might see to that.

Samuels, Allardice and Harper were all due to be on the bench for the QP cup game. Shane is also close to returning. I think Oakley was only signed to cover Shane's absence.

The match day experience for the majority of us not fortunate to even be offered or afford hospitality has been pretty grim for years. This is not appealing to many and they have rightly given priority to other things like shopping or just staying at home. Yesterday the atmosphere was dire and almost lifeless. The Centenary Club also used to offer much better prizes and events than it does now. The Christmas draw is a huge disappointment and whatever happened to the kids cinema events and parties? I think these had stopped long before Covid. On the playing front if we don't start winning soon we can forget the promotion play offs and try to avoid being sucked into the relegation ones. Personally, I don't think our highly paid CEO, Sporting Director or Head Coach give me the impression or confidence that they will get the club out of the current spiral of decline.

I couldn't agree more.

Desperately sorry for Robbie Deas. He has been one of our best players in the last two years and got my MotM vote for the Raith game. I think we might have to recall a few of our players from loans to other clubs to help cover for others. Lewis Nicholson (?), for example, has showed up well at left back on a few occasions.

That's what we had at a bowling tournament in Elgin yesterday. The sport's governing body left it to regional associations' and clubs' discretion to take action as they felt appropriate. Club flags flew at half mast too.