A politician says local people will be asking “serious questions” as to why local enterprise bosses have spent nearly £150,000 on brick paving at Forres’ enterprise park.
The costs were revealed after MSP Douglas Ross asked Highlands and Enterprise a series of questions surrounding the decision to remove the grey stone ‘chuckies’ that divided the carriageway from the pavement in Enterprise Park, in favour of red bricks.
Douglas has uncovered that an initial £34,000 was spent in 2020/21 in relation to the work at the Enterprise Park, while a current contract for 700 meters of paving is costing over £115,000.
He says that struggling businesses will find it hard to accept why HIE found spending a six-figure sum on this work anywhere near a “top priority” at this time.
Douglas added that HIE bosses must be “fully transparent” over this decision and inform local people how much this work will ultimately end up costing.
Increasing wheelchair and pedestrian use
We asked HIE to confirm the costs, and the purpose of the upgrade and they said: “This is about improving access within Enterprise Park Forres for the increasing pedestrian and wheelchair use.
“In the past year we’ve spent £119,366 to replace a 1.3km stretch of stone chuckies with lock blocking. We also commissioned a smaller section of lock blocking five years ago, which cost £34,000.”
Highlands and Islands MSP Douglas Ross said: “I was shocked to discover that Highlands and Enterprise have spent close to £150,000 on this work.
“Local residents and businesses in Forres will be asking serious questions as to why such a significant sum has been spent at a time when many businesses are struggling. HIE are supposed to support local businesses and grow the economy, not spend thousands on projects like this.
“There is a duty for enterprise bosses to be carrying out work that delivers value for the taxpayer. I’m not convinced this massive spend meets that test.
“Bosses need to be fully transparent over this decision and why it was deemed to be a priority at this time. This seems to be a purely cosmetic decision and there were surely better ways for an enterprise body to spend this amount of funding. They must also confirm what this project will cost in full when it is completed.”
I walk a lot. All over the Forres area because it is safe and easy to get around. I have never, not once, met anyone coming the opposite way, or going past me on foot, using a wheelchair or notability scooter or similar since back to 2020 at least. Why for goodness sake was the decision to spend so much money made? Was a footfall audit done beforehand? If so I would like under public information access to see the results of it. Believe me, I walk at various times of the day, from 06:00 up to gone 22:00 at this time of year when the days are long. This is a serious mis-spend of public money and disgraceful. Particularly when the pavements in Forres High Street are a genuine trip hazard to all. Outside on of the little cafe’s nearly opposite the Tolbooth, there is potential collapse of a manhole of some sort. it has been like that for months and months. I am astounded. Our money being wasted on block paving on a little used footpath area. Make it make sense.
edit: * motability 🥴