greeninverness - Green Inverness - The City in the Highlands

The Greeninverness Partnership

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Developing the City of Inverness Greenspace Strategy

Introduction

The aim of the greeninverness Partnership is to create a strategy and action plan to improve, develop and sustain attractive, safe and accessible open space and amenity for the City of Inverness for the health and future benefit of its communities. To take this into the future, the options for establishing a Community Trust for the city will be explored.

The area covered within the Strategy will include the urban city area and extends out from Inverness, with current boundaries being Dalcross to the east, Daviot and Lochend to the south and The Aird to the west. The partnership also takes and interest in areas beyond this geography; for example, where destinations such as forest walks are well accessed by individuals coming out from Inverness.

The range of benefits identified for greenspaces are entirely dependant upon the way that the resource is planned, designed and managed. Therefore the identification of current and future requirements, identified in partnership with local communities and stakeholders, will guide the preparation of the Greenspace Strategy. The Strategy will seek to ensure all open space within the City of Inverness boundary is managed to optimise the future benefits for local communities, that best value is secured and a prioritised framework for investment, maintenance and management are provided.

Aims for Urban Greenspace

URBAN RENAISSANCE & REGENERATION Contributing to regeneration and renewal projects, enhancing neighbourhood image

SOCIAL INCLUSION & COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT Fostering local pride & encouraging participation in design & management

ENVIRONMENT & ECOLOGY Creation of 'green lungs' for our cities, increasing biodiversity and sustainability of our urban areas

EDUCATION & LIFE LONG LEARNING Use of open spaces as an outdoor classroom

HERITAGE & CULTURE An essential element of our heritage, providing venues for community events and civic celebrations

HEALTH & WELL BEING Helping to promote healthy living by providing places for walking, cycling and other physical activities

The Strategy will take forward the above aims and the policy commitments highlighted in the Inverness Local Plan and the Objectives for open spaces set out in the City Vision. The following are identified as priority actions:

The city's setting must be protected by a network of "green" wedges, which will penetrate through the urban structure to ensure safe and pleasant environments and increase biodiversity.

Public access, recreation and community heritage schemes should be developed on the urban fringe as part of a "Countryside Around Towns" project

The City should sit comfortably within the frame of the Great Glen, with six major town expansions identified to meet ten years building capacity.

An urban design strategy is essential to co-ordinate an extensive regeneration and environmental improvement programme in the city centre

A number of high profile Action Areas are identified, which occupy strategic 'gateway' entry points and other nodes within the urban structure

'Green Wedges'

Six major "Green Wedges" in the urban fringe, of strategic importance to the setting of the City, have been identified to be safeguarded and seek to be open to public access. No development will be permitted within these defined areas. Major "green wedges" prevent coalescence of the built up area and offer scope to create commons, urban forests and parks - "corridors" which connect the City's Victorian open spaces with the adjoining countryside. They will provide for recreation and public access, wildlife and landscape enhancement; together with amenity "buffers" and natural outlets for flood water.

The Strategy Development Process

A Greenspace Strategy has a number of advantages:

Heightened public awareness of the resource and the issues surrounding its protection and management;

Improved rationale for policy, land disposal and spending decisions; and

Stronger basis for accessing funds for improvements in provision.

The strategy process includes a review through audit of existing public open space and amenity in and around the City. Consultants have completed an initial audit of approximately 100 established sites identified as amenity in the Inverness Local Plan. They have also produced a report detailing opportunity for the wider urban fringe and the immediate countryside areas surrounding the city. The results of the audit have been recorded in a GIS that will form the future planning record for greenspace in and around the City.

The second phase in the process will be to define the interests in the open spaces identified in the audit, and to add additional areas that are recognised as having value to the communities, but were not included in the first audit survey. Significant woodland sites are also being assessed through survey where permission from owners can be agreed. It is anticipated that, where appropriate, the outcome of the survey will be for formal management plans to be prepared.

The third phase, having identified the comprehensive picture of open space sites and the interests in these areas, will be to analyse the outcomes to identify overall provision. This analysis will be taken to the community groups and stakeholders to provide confirmation and additional comment on the quality and quantity of different types of open space, their value and use, and preference for future action planning.

Finally the results of the above process will feed into the development of the Strategy Report and a prioritised Plan for future Action which will set out clear and sustainable costed solutions to meet current and future need, and the means by which successful outcomes will be evaluated.