Plans to build a huge hotel on the waterfront in Inverness city centre have been criticised for a lack of proposed car parking spaces at the site.
Dutch firm Vastint Hospitality wants to build its Moxy Hotel – which would overtake the Kingsmills as the city’s biggest – at the former Glebe Street swimming pool site which was demolished in 2000. The area has lain vacant ever since.
The hotel itself would boast 170 rooms but only 81 car park spaces.
And Vastint’s transport statement acknowledges the proposed number of spaces “falls short” of the required provision of one space per bedroom, as outlined in Highland Council’s Roads and Transport Guidelines for New Developments (2013).
The transport statement also predicts, based on peak hotel occupancy rates, that 105 spaces would be needed in June and August – a shortfall of 24 spaces in these months. It also estimates there would not be enough spaces in May, July, September and October.
However, the statement argues that, “given the high level of public transport accessibility in the area,” the proposed level of car parking is “considered appropriate”.
But one local resident, Mr Allan Kerr, said: “The justification provided, regarding the availability of public transport in the area, is not a realistic means of countering the likely overflow of vehicles requiring parking, and is at best a moot gesture.
“I have significant concern that the overflow of vehicles will resort to parking in the immediate residential areas, specifically Friars’ Street, and more specifically, utilising the courtyard residential parking area at the end of Friars’ Street.”
Mr Kerr added that, at present, there is already an issue with weekend shoppers parking in the courtyard area to avoid paying on-street parking fees.
He added: “The addition of a hotel of this scale, with its unsuitable proposed parking provision, will only compound the issue, becoming a further and unreasonable inconvenience for residents within the courtyard.”
As well as the parking issue, several members of the public have already criticised the visual appearance of the proposed hotel, which one woman described as a “modern monstrosity.”
Crown and City Centre Community Council has already lodged a comment supporting the the hotel plans in principle, in the interest of reviving businesses in the city centre.
But their statement also highlights that there “remains some concern and uncertainty” over the finished impact of the building and use of external materials.
Inverness Chamber of Commerce chief executive, Stewart Nicol, previously hailed the hotel plans for creating jobs in construction and hospitality, and said the extra beds could play a key part in stabilising room prices in the city during the peak summer months.
