Delivery drivers need guess no more in Inverness, after street signs have finally been placed around the city’s distributer road.
Dual Gaelic and English language street signs have been installed in Slackbuie and Milton of Leys.
The streets have had no signposted names since 2017.
From the yellow hollow at Slackbuie Brae to Milton of Leys Road – the signs have been placed around the city over the last fortnight.
The new roads were created after a multi-million-pound investment in the city’s ring road.
Until now, many of the streets were referred to collectively as the imaginatively named “distributer road”.
It was in 2019 that councillors agreed names for the streets.
Delighted that the street signs are finally in place in Inverness, one councillor is scratching his head at how long the whole process has taken.
Two-year delay caused by Covid restrictions
Councillor Duncan Macpherson, Inverness South, said: “I first highlighted the need for these distributor roads to have names attached, soon after I was elected in 2017.
“However there was no budget to pay the costs involved for the additional road signs and then we encountered a two-year delay caused by Covid restrictions.
“Delivery companies and their drivers often struggle to understand the directions given by householders. This because roads were not clearly named, and difficult to see especially at night.”
More houses than Buttercups now
He said fellow Inverness South councillors agreed to fund the road signs from their ward discretionary budget, to make it easier and clearer for all road users.
Slackbuie is loosely based on a Gaelic name meaning “yellow hollow”.
However, even Mr Macpherson jokes that there are few buttercups – as the area is
“becoming covered with houses”.
He continued: “MacAskill Drive is the new road name for the main bus route through the upper section of Milton of Leys housing development.
Name in memory of last farmer of the area
“It was chosen by the community after a public consultation by the community council.
“Mr MacAskill was the farmer and the last man to farm at Milton of Leys before the housing developments began. That was some 20 plus years ago.”
MacAskill Drive begins above the Milton of Leys school near Pinewood Drive and goes downhill to meet Inshes Road at the mid point roundabout in Milton of Leys.
The distributer road is the main route around Inverness.
It was built to take traffic away from the city centre from the A82 Fort William to Inverness road.
Motorists join the route from the Caledonian Canal basin in Inverness around the south and east of the city to join a link road with the A1 and to the Kessock Bridge.
