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Raigmore is the main hospital in Inverness and the entire Highland authority.[9] The present hospital opened in 1970, replacing wartime wards dating from 1941.[10] Raigmore is also a teaching hospital catering for both the Universities of Aberdeen and Stirling.
[edit] Economy
Most of the traditional industries such as distilling have been replaced by high-tech businesses, including the design and manufacture of diabetes diagnostic kits. Highlands and Islands Enterprise has partly funded a Centre for Health Science with a view to attracting more businesses in the medical and medical devices business to the area.[citation needed]
Inverness City Centre is divided from North West to South East by the River Ness. Both sides are connected by Frairs Bridge to the North and Tomnahurich Street to the South. [11] The main shopping area, which is to the east of the River, consists of the High Street, Eastgate and Inglis Street being surrounded by the Eastgate Shopping Centre (Inverness). Another shopping area, where the Victoria Market exists [12], can be found nearby. The main Inverness railway station is directly opposite. A major supermarket is even present on the fringe of the centre. [13] The west bank contains both The Eden Court Theatre and St Andrew's Cathedral. [14]
Inverness is the home for Scottish Natural Heritage following that body's relocation from Edinburgh under the auspices of the Scottish Executive's decentralisation strategy. The body provides a large number of jobs in the area.
[edit] Transport
Inverness is linked to the Black Isle across the Moray Firth by the Kessock Bridge. It has a railway station[15] with services to Perth, Edinburgh, Glasgow, London, Aberdeen, Thurso, Wick and to Kyle of Lochalsh. Inverness is connected to London by the Caledonian Sleeper, which departs six times a week and by the Highland Chieftain which runs 7 days a week. Inverness Airport[16] is located 15 km east of the city and has scheduled flights to airports across the UK and Republic of Ireland including London, Manchester, Edinburgh, Belfast, Dublin and the islands to the north and west of Scotland. Some local controversy arose when British Airways sold off the landing slots at Heathrow for the three daily flights to and from Inverness as part of the proposed link up with American Airlines which eventually failed. Three trunk roads (the A9, A82 and A96) provide access to Aberdeen, Perth, Elgin, Thurso, Edinburgh and Glasgow. Plans are being drafted to convert the A96 between Inverness and Nairn to a dual carriageway.
[edit] Politics
[edit] Local Government
- See also Politics of the Highland council area
Inverness was an autonomous royal burgh, and county town for the county of Inverness (also known as Inverness-shire) until 1975, when local government counties and burghs were abolished, under the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973, in favour of two-tier regions and districts and unitary islands council areas. The royal burgh was then absorbed into a new district of Inverness, which was one of eight districts within the Highland region. The new district combined in one area the royal burgh, the Inverness district of the county and the Aird district of the county. The rest of the county was divided between other new districts within the Highland region and the Western Isles. Therefore, although much larger than the royal burgh, the new Inverness district was much smaller than the county.
In 1996, under the Local Government etc (Scotland) Act 1994,[17] the districts were abolished and the region became a unitary council area. The new unitary Highland Council, however, adopted the areas of the former districts as council management areas, and created area committees to represent each. The Inverness committee represents 23 out of the 80 Highland Council wards, with each ward electing one councillor by the first past the post system of election. However, management area and committee area boundaries have been out of alignment since 1999, as a result of changes to ward boundaries. Also, ward boundaries are changing again this year, 2007, and the council management areas are being replaced with three new corporate management areas.
Ward boundary changes this year, 2007, under the Local Governance (Scotland) Act 2004,[18] create 22 new Highland Council wards, each electing three or four councillors by the single transferable vote system of election, a system designed to produce a form of proportional representation. The total number of councillors remains the same. Also, the Inverness management area is being merged into the new Inverness, Nairn and Badenoch and Strathspey corporate management area, covering nine of the new wards and electing 34 of the 80 councillors. As well as the Inverness area, the new area includes the former Nairn management area and the former Badenoch and Strathspey management area. The corporate area name is also that of a constituency, but boundaries are different.
Within the corporate area there is a city management area covering seven of the nine wards, the Aird and Loch Ness ward, the Culloden and Ardersier ward, the Inverness Central ward, the Inverness Millburn ward, the Inverness Ness-side ward, the Inverness South ward and the Inverness West ward. The Nairn ward and the Badenoch and Strathspey ward complete the corporate area. Wards in the city management area are to be represented on a city committee as well as corporate area committees.
[edit] City Status
In 2001 city status was granted to the Town of Inverness, and letters patent were taken into the possession of the Highland Council by the convener of the Inverness area committee.[19] These letters patent, which were sealed in March 2001 and are held by Inverness Museum and Art Gallery,[20] create a city of Inverness, but do not refer to anywhere with defined boundaries, except that Town of Inverness may be taken as a reference to the burgh of Inverness. As a local government area the burgh was abolished 26 years earlier, in 1975, and so was the county of Inverness for which the burgh was the county town. Nor do they refer to the former district or to the royal burgh.
The Highland area was created as a two-tier local government region in 1975, and became a unitary local government area in 1996. The region consisted of eight districts, of which one was called Inverness. The districts were all merged into the unitary area. As the new local government authority, the Highland Council then adopted the areas of the districts as council management areas. The management areas were abolished in 2007, in favour of three new corporate management areas. The council has defined a large part of the Inverness, Nairn and Badenoch and Strathspey corporate area as the Inverness city management area.[21] This council-defined city area includes Loch Ness and numerous towns and villages apart from the former burgh of Inverness.
In January 2008 a petition to matriculate armorial bearings for the City of Inverness was refused by Lord Lyon King of Arms on the grounds that there is no legal persona to which arms can be granted.[22]
[edit] Parliamentary representation
There are three existing parliamentary constituencies with Inverness as an element in their names:
These existing constituencies are effectively subdivisions of the Highland council area, but boundaries for Westminster elections are now very different from those for Holyrood elections. The Holyrood constituencies are also subdivisions of the Highlands and Islands electoral region.
Historically there have been six Westminster constituencies:
Inverness Burghs was a district of burghs constituency, covering the parliamentary burghs of Inverness, Fortrose, Forres and Nairn. Inverness-shire covered, at least nominally, the county of Inverness minus the Inverness parliamentary burgh. As created in 1918, Inverness covered the county minus Outer Hebridean areas, which were merged into the Western Isles constituency. The Inverness constituency included the former parliamentary burgh of Inverness. As created in 1983, Inverness, Nairn and Lochaber was one of three constituencies covering the Highland region, which had been created in 1975. As first used in 1997, the Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, and Ross, Skye and Inverness West constituencies were effectively two of three constituencies covering the Highland unitary council area, which had been created in 1996.
[edit] Town twinning
[edit] Health Services
The main hospital serving Inverness is Raigmore Hospital. This hospital comes under NHS Highland which controls many hospitals in the Highlands and Islands. There are however several other hospitals in the general area, notably New Craigs hospital which deals which mental health care. The current building occupied by New Craigs was opened in 2000.
[edit] Culture & sports
Inverness is an important centre for bagpipe players and lovers, since every September the city hosts the Northern Meeting, the most prestigious solo piping competition in the world. The Inverness cape, a garment worn by pipers the world over in the rain, is not necessarily made in Inverness.
Another major event in calendar is the annual City of Inverness Highland Games. In 2006 Inverness hosted Scotland's biggest ever Highland Games over two days in July, featuring the Masters' World Championships, the showcase event for heavies aged over 40 years. 2006 was the first year that the Masters' World Championships had been held outside the United States, and it attracted many top heavies from around the world to the Inverness area.
The current music scene within Inverness generally leans towards an emo/punk/hardcore style, but there are also bands who show features of different genres such as rock, metal, pop, classical, grunge, industrial and traditional Scottish music. The Ironworks venue has attracted a greater variety of music to Inverness.[citation needed]
The city is home to two football clubs. Inverness Caledonian Thistle F.C. was formed in 1994 from the merger of two Highland League clubs, Caledonian F.C. and Inverness Thistle. 'Caley Thistle' play at The Tulloch Caledonian Stadium, and are currently in the Scottish Premier League and lay claim to have the longest name for any football club in the world. The other football club Clachnacuddin F.C., play in the Highland League. Inverness Citadel F.C. was another popular side which are now unfortunately defunct. Bught Park, located in the centre of Inverness is the finishing point of the annual Loch Ness Marathon and home of Inverness Shinty Club.
Cricket is also a popular sport in Inverness, with both Highland CC and Northern Counties playing in the North of Scotland Cricket Association League and 7 welfare league teams playing midweek cricket at Fraser Park. Both teams have been very successful over the years. Highland joined the league in 1957 and won their first league title in 2002 and recaptured the title in 2007.[citation needed]
In 2007, the city hosted Highland 2007, a celebration of the culture of the Highlands, and will also host the World Highland Games Heavy Championships (21 & 22 July) and European Pipe Band Championships (28 July).[26]
[edit] Buildings
St. Andrew's Cathedral on the banks of the River Ness
Important buildings in Inverness include Inverness Castle, Inverness College and various churches.
The castle was built in 1835 on the site of its medieval predecessor. It is now a sheriff court.
Inverness Cathedral, dedicated to St Andrew, is a cathedral of the Scottish Episcopal Church and seat of the ordinary of the Diocese of Moray, Ross and Caithness. The cathedral has a curiously square-topped look to its spires, as funds ran out before they could be completed.
The oldest church is the Old High Church,[27] on St Michael's Mount by the riverside, a site perhaps used for worship since Celtic times. The church tower dates from mediaeval times, making it the oldest surviving building in Inverness. It is used by the Church of Scotland congregation of Old High St Stephen's, Inverness,[28] and it is the venue for the annual Kirking of the Council, which is attended by local councillors.
Inverness College is the hub campus for the UHI Millennium Institute.[29]
Porterfield Prison, officially HMP Inverness, serves the courts of the Highlands, Western Isles, Orkney Isles and Moray, providing secure custody for all remand prisoners and short term adult prisoners, both male and female (segregated).[30]
[edit] Famous people
The former leader of the Liberal Democrats, Charles Kennedy, was born in Inverness.
Yvette Cooper, the Minister of State for Housing in the Brown Cabinet was also born in Inverness.
[edit] Areas of the city
[edit] Towns and Villages
Apart from the former burgh of Inverness, the Highland Council's city management area includes Ardersier, Beauly, Culloden,Balloch, Drumnadrochit, Fort Augustus, Invermoriston, Smithton, Tomatin, Kirkhill and Kiltarlity.
[edit] Footnotes
This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
- , 2001 Population of Main Highland Towns & Villages, Highland Council website, accessed 7 March 2008
- , 2001 Census - Area Profiles, Highland Council website, accessed 7 March 2008
- , Inverness has no statutory boundaries and different measures or estimates of population are based on differing boundary definitions
- , Letters patent, seemingly granting city status, were sealed in 2001 and are now held in Inverness Museum and Art Gallery
These letters patent are unusual, however, in that they do not refer to anywhere with defined boundaries
- , The Highland Council website, accessed 6 March 2006
- , Property market: Is your home recession proof? Telegraph.co.uk 12:01am GMT 03/02/2008, accessed 6 March 2008
- , Craig Phadrig, Inverness, Walk in Scotland, Visitscotland
- , Inverness churches
- , http://www2.nhshighland.scot.nhs.uk/Health%20Services/Hospitals/Raigmore/index.htm
- , http://www.nhshighland.scot.nhs.uk/Services/Pages/RaigmoreHospital.aspx
- , http://www.stockphotography.co.uk/UK/Maps/Inverness.asp
- , http://www.explore-inverness.com/shops.htm
- , http://www.morrisons.co.uk/Store-Finder/Store-Details/?type=qs&value=Inverness&recordid=1&lat=57.47969&lon=-4.21879
- , http://www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk/inverness/inverness/index.html
- , The Highland Main Line, the Aberdeen-Inverness Line and the Far North Line meet at Inverness (Ordnance Survey grid reference NH667454). Also, Kyle of Lochalsh services run to and from Inverness via the Far North Line to Dingwall.
- , Ordnance Survey grid reference for Inverness Airport (access from A96 road): NH776508.
- , Local Government etc (Scotland) Act 1994, Office of Public Sector Information (OPSI) website
- , Local Governance (Scotland) Act 2004, Office of Public Sector Information (OPSI) website
- , Helen Liddell joins Inverness celebrations as Scotland’s Millennium City, Scotland Office press release 19 Mar 2001
- , Ordnance Survey grid reference for Inverness Museum and Art Gallery: NH666451
- , Key Decisions Taken on Council Post 2007, Highland Council news release, 15 December 2006, includes a list of wards within the Inverness management area
- , Coat of arms rejected in city status query, The Inverness Courier, accessed February 12, 2008
- , List of MPs, Parliament of the United Kingdom website, retrieved 11 July 2007
Website of Danny Alexander MP, retrieved 10 July 2007
- , Fergus Ewing MSP, Scottish Parliament website, retrieved 10 July 2007
- , John Farquhar Munro MSP, Scottish Parliament website, retrieved 11 July 2007
- , Highland 2007, Information on the European Pipe Band Championships
- , OLD HIGH CHURCH, Riverside Churches Clergy Fraternal website
- , Old High St Stephen’s website
- , UHI Millennium Institute website
- , HMP Inverness, Scottish Prison Service website
Ordnance Survey grid reference: NH668449
[edit] External links
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