‘Bonkers’ Raigmore Hospital bus gate plan thrown out putting NHS Highland under pressure to come up with alternative as knock-back threatens work on the National Treatment Centre
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NHS Highland has vowed to continue to work on finding a solution to a long-running public transport challenge after its proposals were thrown out by councillors.
One member of Highland Council’s south planning applications committee, which unanimously rejected the health board’s preferred route for a bus gate through the grounds of Raigmore Hospital in Inverness, called the NHS proposals “bonkers”.
Community campaigners who had also objected said common sense had prevailed as health bosses were sent back to the drawing board.
The bus gate proposed would have entered the hospital grounds via the outside bend of Churchill Road and Ashton Road, running beside flats at Fraser Noble Court and joining the existing hospital network opposite Heather Court.
It would also have given access to the hospital site for emergency vehicles and is a requirement of planning permission for the new National Treatment Centre currently under construction at Inverness Campus.
Planning officer John Kelly had warned that, if the route was not passed, the council could be forced to take enforcement action against the NHS to deliver a route – including putting a stop to work on the centre.
NHS Highland had said its preferred route was chosen as it did not interfere with the working of the helipad at Raigmore, though operators of the emergency airlift service earlier confirmed alternative routes would not prevent it landing or taking off from the site.
The route proposed would have had buses passing within two metres of a wheelchair service centre and local homes.
Councillors threw the plans out on Tuesday after a site visit the previous day. At the meeting council leader Margaret Davidson said she was left “shaking her head” at the proposal while convener Bill Lobban said he was “astounded” at NHS Highland’s stance.
He even accused the health board of deliberately putting forward an unworkable route as a “smokescreen” for the fact it simply doesn’t want the bus gate at all.
“They don’t want it and that is the end of the matter,” he claimed.
“To be honest the only word I can use is bonkers, it just doesn’t seem right, there has to be a better alternative,” he said.
Councillor Andrew Jarvie tabled a motion to refuse based on the “unacceptable impact on amenity” on Woodside Terrace.
“Councillors have felt the overbearing pressure to approve this, even being told, if we did not, then helicopters would stop landing there – a claim later refuted by the helicopter’s own operator,” he said.
“Not only did this apparently green initiative involve removing nearly a dozen trees, but the road was just two metres from people’s homes and within one metre of clinical treatment buildings.
“There is no way it was fit for purpose, and certainly not when there were so many other viable routes.”
Margaret Morton of the Community Campaign Group which had fought the proposal said: “It was heartening to hear and see that common sense did indeed at last prevail.
“It has been a stressful and upsetting time for all the Community Campaign Group and for the community at large and we are delighted that a line can now be drawn through this ill thought out and ill conceived plan.”
A NHS Highland spokeswoman said: "We are aware of the decision of the planning committee. We will continue to work with our partners on ways of improving public transport to and from our facilities. In this instance we must protect the helicopter landing site which is essential to every person living within the Highlands."
A Highland Council spokeswoman said: “NHS Highland is required as a condition of their planning permission for the construction of the National Treatment Centre to provide a public transport and active travel corridor through Raigmore Hospital and that remains the case despite the decision by the South Planning Applications Committee on this specific proposal.
“Officers from the council will now seek to further engage with relevant stakeholders, including NHS Highland, in pursuing a sustainable resolution to this matter.”
