HITRANS draft new Regional Transport Strategy

31 March 2023 at 12:31:13

A Case for Change in improving transport in the Highlands and Islands - consultation open until 8th May

HITRANS, the transport partnership for the Highlands and Islands, is seeking the views of the public on their draft new Regional Transport Strategy which covers the Highland, Moray, Western Isles, Orkney, and most of the Argyll and Bute local authority areas.

Under the Transport (Scotland) Act 2005, HITRANS has a statutory duty to produce a Regional Transport Strategy, which sets the strategic framework for the development of transport, both within and to/from other areas of Scotland over the next 20 years.

Stage one of the three-stage process is to establish a Case for Change, which identifies the transport challenges encountered in such a large and rural area and establishes a set of strategy objectives to address these.  An important element of the process is to seek comments and feedback from the public and other organisations.

An online survey has been created by consultants, Stantec, and it will remain open for comments until 5 pm on Monday 8th May.  The link to the survey is:  hitrans-case-for-change-consultation-stantec.hub.arcgis.com/pages/survey

Those responding must be 16 years of age or over.  If you require assistance with completing the questionnaire, please get in touch via HITRANS@stantec.com. The link to the consultation for the Regional Transport Strategy is:  hitrans-case-for-change-consultation-stantec.hub.arcgis.com/ 

Cllr Uisdean Robertson, Chair of HITRANS and the Comhairle's Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, said: "We have been facing considerable challenges in Transport Services for the Islands so it is important that Island views are made known and I would urge as many people as possible to complete the survey and help reshape the future of services."

Ranald Robertson, Director of HITRANS, said: "The Regional Transport Strategy aims to deliver connectivity across the region which enables sustainable economic growth and helps communities to actively participate in economic and social activities.  The strategy will guide our priorities for action and spending over forthcoming years.  Consulting the public is a vital element of the process and I would encourage as many people as possible to respond to the Case for Change."

The next stage will be an options appraisal, which involves developing and appraising a set of options that help resolve the transport and associated issues identified and deliver the strategy objectives. The outputs from this process will then be developed into a final Regional Transport Strategy.