Retail development in Inverurie


It's disappointing that the proposed retail development in Inverurie has been refused. Inverurie has a great range of high-street stores, but what it lacks are some of the bigger 'warehouse'-style stores to complement them.

At the moment anyone wanting a DIY warehouse or similar warehouse-style store has to make the one-hour round trip into Aberdeen, rather than shopping locally. A retail park in Inverurie would retain some of that trade in the Garioch and, hopefully, people would therefore make their shopping trips locally and patronise local shops in the high street at the same time.

Diverting trade away from Aberdeen might also help to make the city fathers wake up to the need to make the city more car friendly, like Dundee. Many of us in the Garioch are becoming tired of roads artificially restricted by empty bus lanes and limited car parking when we do, finally, get into town.

If we are serious about getting people off the roads, we should re-open Kintore stations sooner rather than later. God knows it has been talked about.

Naturally, Inverurie had its own traffic concerns, given the bottleneck of the bridge beside the station. But, according to newspaper reports, returning that to two-way traffic, without traffic lights, was one of the conditions if planning permission had been granted.

Posted: Mon - June 26, 2006 at 10:26 AM          

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