Highland Council abandons plans to redesign Academy Street after legal challenge

Highland Council has abandoned plans to partly pedestrianise a shopping street in Inverness.

The vote came moments after councilors agreed – in private session – to abandon an appeal against a Court of Session ruling that it failed to properly consult the public about its ambitions.

The proposals for Academy Street, including limits to private vehicles, were challenged by the owners of Eastgate Shopping Centre.

Trustees of the shopping center argued that a proper consultation had not been held and that councilors had failed to consider the impact that the plan had on local businesses.

Lord Sandison upheld a legal challenge last month, stating that Highland Council did not intend to run a “substantively unfair consultation exercise”.

It was added that, with hindsight, “their actions were calculated to, and did, produce a consultation which was unfair to and beyond the point of unlawfulness.”

Councilors voted 30-23 to drop the Academy Street scheme and for its city committee to review the entire process at a later date.

The council’s proposals aimed to reduce traffic in the city center to make it more attractive for walkers, cyclists and wheelchair users.

It would have included stopping through traffic in Academy Street and adding bus lane sections between the junctions of Union Street and Queensgate.

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