Problems with the masonry on the Poundland building (formerly Woolworths) on Elgin High Street have led to the temporary closure of North Street to vehicles
The Grigor & Young Elgin office is on North Street.
We – and other businesses in central Elgin – would like to emphasise that North Street still provides a means of access to High Street for pedestrians in both directions. In other words, for example, you can still get from Elgin Bus Station to the High Street on foot by the usual route.
As far as we are aware, all central Elgin businesses apart from Poundland are open, as normal.
Although work via scaffolding has been ongoing on the building adjacent to Poundland for many weeks, apparently, problems were identified on 10 May 2018 on the west-facing gable of Poundland and this led to the emergency closure of North Street to vehicles (see the image at the top of this article).
This closure means that North Street is not currently available for through traffic or for use of the “disabled” parking spaces.
North Street is normally a one-way street in a northerly direction (towards Alexandra Road/A96). The present situation means that the car parking behind Grigor & Young / Allan Black & McCaskie and the Clydesdale Bank is not currently accessible.
It may be that North Street will become temporarily accessible directly from the A96.
We understand from speaking to site workers that the Moray Council are looking at the possibility of temporarily revising the traffic priorities at North Street.
The obvious option would be to make the north end of North Street (where it forms a T-junction with the A96) available for two-way traffic – which would allow the car parking at the rear of the buildings on High Street/North Street to be accessed.
At the moment, it is not clear how long the work on the Poundland building will take.
As we hope you can see from these photos taken on 11 May 2018, North Street is still open for pedestrians.
Remaining pedestrian access at North Street, Elgin – 11 May 2018
The Dandylion surveys the work on the Poundland building, Elgin.
Grigor & Young are open for business!