County just fail to conquer the Cattachs - Brora 4 Nairn 3

Up past a slightly snowy Ben Bhraggie and other landmarks on an overcast December day with the eternal optimism that is the lifeblood of many a Saturday afternoon generating the usual good craic; up the A9 towards a tough appointment in Sutherland   – so it was a trek again to Brora’s Dudgeon Park that produced an exciting game but nothing came out of it for County, although Les’s men fought to the end in a frantic second half performance to achieve a gallant 4-3 as Brora took the points to create a 7 point gap between the two sides. Might have been a different story if we hadn’t made mistakes, Brora looked very dull until they scored their first goal and then they turned on the style but had to face a County onslaught in the second half.  This observer looks forward to seeing Ross’s SHFLtv video when it gets posted on line. Not bad against the league leaders who haven’t lost at home this season. A fantastic turn out of County support at Brora too. Gone were the legions of red and white that appeared at the Grant Street Park for the North Cup Final – at their home ground it looked as though County fans matched them in numbers. It was a hard one to take for the Wee County loyal support but they are not deflated and are looking forward to getting behind the team again next Saturday when Cove make the trip from the east to step out at Station Park.

Great banter with Brora fans too, both before the game in the social club and during the match. They knew they had achieved a big, big result but a lot of them too had respect for the County performance and the impressive numbers of fans we took north with us. Que sera, sera.

 Despite the result the faithful, young and not so young, made the most of the afternoon in Brora

Considerable benefits of Getting IT Together in Nairn

Gurnites might recall the video we posted of the Get IT Together - Nairn launch event back in July 2013. It was a great day and we got a chance to speak to some of the learners and the Get IT Together team.  Video here and some images here. Get IT Together in Nairn is supported by BT’s Connected Society programme and Highlands and Highlands Enterprise, and is part of BT’s commitment to help people right around the world gain the skills and confidence they need to join the online community.

Now that the project has been and running for a few months, we thought it was time, to catch up with Project Officer, Brigitte Vallance to see how it has all been going since the launch. Here's what she had to tell us:

Brigitte, how long exactly has the Getting IT together initiative been going in Nairn now and how many people have come along to participate over that time? 

I took up my position as Project Officer in April this year, and spent the first few weeks preparing for the project launch and making community connections.  From the end of July I have been running sessions four days a week.  We have currently had over 60 people receive and complete the free training sessions on both laptops and IPads/tablets. As you know Get IT Together – Nairn can only provide these sessions free of charge because we are supported and funded by BT and HIE which we are really grateful for.

I gather a lot of people keep coming back to help others after they have learnt a few online skills. There’s also an important social side to this emerging isn’t there?

I could not have imagined the wonderful social impact that this project would have on people.  Many of the original learners enjoy learning so much that they still come along each week, to both share what they have previously learnt and to catch up with their new friends.  

We have had learners who are relatively new to the Nairn area come along and make friends and learn about other groups and activities in the local area. 

Have you seen people becoming more self-confident generally with these skills and the options that getting online opens up to them? 

Because the sessions are informal and friendly, learners feel comfortable and soon their concerns disappear.  I see many learners who had been worried about coming to the sessions, on their own newly purchased devices playing games, sending emails and browsing online shopping site.

Some learners have taken their tablets abroad with them and shared holiday photos by email, something they would not have been able to do before the sessions.  Many regularly now use Skype and can’t believe how easy it is.  I have emails very frequently from my ladies telling me about their travels or sending me fun messages.  

Have you got any specific instances of how the initiative has had a significant impact on the lives of the students?

One couple who are new to the area were struggling to meet people and settled into the Nairn community.  The husband has health issues so the wife is the main carer.  They asked at the community centre about how they could get involved and they were directed to me. They are now online and love using the internet. 

The wife supports and shares her skills with all the learners and in turn has made friends and joined many other groups which were recommended by the learners at my sessions. 

Another lady said she loved coming because she never felt her questions were too silly to ask.  She had tried other computer courses but they went over her head and she felt she was wasting their time.  Today she brought in her early Christmas gift to the session with her - a tablet. We helped her to set up Skype, her emails and downloaded some apps today, and she is looking forward to talking with her family via Skype on Christmas day. 

I hear  that people make more rapid progress on i pads and tablets rather than through thte laptop or PC route - are these touch devices just easier to use or are there other reasons? 

The progress appears to be quicker on tablets because there are fewer actions to remember in order to get the required result.  

You can tailor a tablet to suit the individual. if you are interested in downloading books from Nairn Library, you can save the website to your front screen on an tablet. In future, to access that site, you just put your finger on the icon and it will open directly for you.  

Apps are also easy to use on tablets as the icons are in picture form. Obviously the concept of the internet still needs explanation, but the ease with which it can be accessed is far greater.

What could any individual, group or business locally do to help Get IT together in Nairn? Are you looking for any more equipment or other practical help with anything?

I think that Nairn is fortunate to have such a strong community spirit and such willing helpful people living here. I still need people to come along and get learning whilst the project is running, so telling people about the project is important so everyone who wants to learn has the opportunity to do so.  It would also help me if anyone who has any computer skills at all could volunteer to support some of the sessions that are run. 

Thank you to the Gurn@nurn for all your kind support for the project, you are another fine example of community involvement working.  

County are class - even the bins are NCFC colours

Delivery of new wheelie bins pic.twitter.com/xQrNMRAD8W
— Nairn County FC (@NairnCounty_FC) December 6, 2013

Flats at former bus station garage site - scaffolding starts to show the dimensions

Common Good - Liz seeks a legal route

We’ve already posted an article this week on the criticism that the Nairn Common Good monitoring statement received on Tuesday at the N,B&S area committee meeting in Kinguissie. There was a call for the committee to seek “independent legal opinion on to any legal wriggle room “ on  some of the Common Good  leases. 

Gurnites may also remember an article from June this year when Liz expressed her frustration with certain Common Good issues  - Article here: “.And it was all stitched up in District Council days and it is very disheartening.”   

At the end of the discussion on the Common Good on Tuesday Liz reflected on the best way forward. Since then she tells the Gurn that she has sought the advice of the the Council’s Director of Legal Services on any options and the outcomes with regard to the leases. She told us that Independent Legal Advice would cost around £120 per hour and wouldn't be in the remit of the area committee anyway although they can make recommendations that could be followed up. Despite the present limits of the area committees Liz remains confident that they will eventually achieve a lot and says she is very happy that they have been created. 

Winter maintenance vehicles – no winter tyres on the Nairn ones.

Last Tuesday another of the items under discussion at the N,B&S area committee meeting was the Winter Maintenance plan. You can see this item on the webcast page here and it starts at 1.24.27 into the video. 

This observer was struck by something Laurie had to say at 1.34.27 

“A couple of years ago one of the lorries got stuck on the Grantown Road, they had to get another one down from Grantown to pull it out, one of the reasons was that it had summer tyres on. I would like an assurance that we have actually have winter tyres or snow tyres on the lorries this time. Cost was given as the reason but we do need the vehicles in shape.” 

A reply came from the official shown in the video at 1.40.32

“Snow tyres, some of our fleet has winter tyres. John tells me that the High areas in Badenoch and Strathspey have winter tyres on. Nairn we don’t need them so much so they’re summer tyres. So we may have problems we just have to deal with that and get vehicles redeployed perhaps if there is a severe problem.”

Obviously the Roads and Transport folk at Highland Council are experts and money is tight but as Laurie suggests, would it be prudent to find the money and give all these important vehicles winter tyres? 

High tide Nairn 5th December 2013

Considerable debris was deposited on the riverside walks close to the harbour area earlier today. More images  from the harbour and riverside area here.  And also over on Bratach's photostream.

Laurie lists town centre retail woes

At the N,B&S area committee meeting on Tuesday the ongoing attempt to get Scottish government cash for a charrette to discuss the future of Nairn town centre was discussesed. During this discussion Cllr Laurie Fraser, who has a business on Nairn High Street himself, gave a depressing picture of the formidable obstacles that face shops in town centre premises in these rapidly changing times.

“It’s all very well having these things and I doubt if we are going to get anywhere with the Scottish Government with this. We need to identify a few of the problems and I’ve just listed a few here. We have got excessive retail space in Scotland,  that needs to be addressed. We’ve got unrealistic landlords who demand far too high rents, they tie people into seven year leases and then they put on the leases “upwardly increasing rental only” and that doesn’t help the situation because if the footfall falls away and the business starts to flounder people are bankrupt and at the end of the day as we in Nairn have actually had to house people who have lost their houses because of this. It is something we should be tackling and we as a council should be taking on because some of our leases actually have “upwardly increasing rentals only” and I sometimes feel this is unfair. 

A lot of the properties we’ve got now in our High Streets just because the shape and size of the buildings they bring in insufficient return to cover basic things like roof repairs, upgrading work even insufficient profits for the owners or the people that are renting the building to cover. There’s loss of footfall that needs to be addressed through more car-parking spaces. We have a rating system that is very inflexible, especially for new businesses that start up and where you lose the footfall or you have difficulties it’s tied to the value of the building and sometimes the building can’t generate an income to cover the rates. We’ve got streets that are not the best ideal, they’re hundred, a few hundred year old streets, where as compared to the shopping malls and supermarkets they are purpose built. It’s very hard to compete against that. We’ve got fast changing shopping trends as well through the internet and its hard for people to keep up, certainly if they’re on long leases or in long-term properties. We’ve got problems with banks and financing, we hear the big argument of the banks not lending money out for businesses to get start-up. There’s no bank managers anymore, so I sometimes wonder how young people are supposed to start. I mentioned parking, compare the supermarkets. Purchase of goods is sometimes very difficult.[…] But it’s very difficult sometimes to buy goods and sell competitively especially up against supermarkets who actually dominate their towns and cities now these supermarkets and unfortunately these out of town retail centres - , whose fault is that?  It’s ours because we actually gave them planning permission to build there. So we need to address a number of these issues in particular before we…as part of our ongoing strategy for dealing with town centres.”

Liz then said: “Thank you Laurie, I think that you’ve raised a lot of good problems that the High Streets and the communities and the towns and the villages face but very few solutions and hopefully by coming forward with a charrette we can try and encompass all that. I think if you have got proposals for solutions to some of these issues that you have raised we would be delighted to hear them as well.

The N,B&S area committee meeting can be viewed in a webcast here. 

Laurie on the bypass "I have serious concerns about the loss of farmland "

The N,B&S (Nairn, Badenoch and Strathsepy) area committee discussed the proposed dualling of the A9 and A96 on Tuesday morning down in Kinguissie

Liz said: “This is an item I asked to come on so we could highlight the consultation of the routes and the dualling of the A9 an A96 and I would like to include a further recommendation and that would be that Nairn and Badenoch and Strathspey area committee agrees to respond to Transport Scotland’s consultation, welcoming the consultation and support the substantial infrastructure improvements to be delivered by dualling both the A9 and the A96 and that we hope for quick delivery of the project in our area.”

Her colleagues agreed with that and then she asked for any other comments. Cllr Lobban had some concerns about how close the cycle track would be to the dualled A9 and also about a 2+1 section reverting to single carriageway when a part of the road would be dualled..

Liz said: “If you could send me these concerns we could include them in the representation we’ve just decided to make and I would be happy to hear from any members that wanted to put issues into our representation to this.”

Laurie then spoke: “Can I ask how we are going through this representation because I have serious concerns about the loss of farmland in Nairn because it’s going so wide from the town, or one of the proposals is so wide and I think we need a show a wee bit of leadership here for the communities and certainly those farms that are affected by this. Have we got certain times, dates or meetings?”

“Thank you Councillor Fraser,” continued Liz. “I was proposing that we did not favour any of the routes that go round the bypass for Nairn, that we just welcome the infrastructure improvement and the reason for that is that this council has always been supportive of a bypass for Nairn and I think that some of the options; I think it is up to the communities and the people that it impacts directly on to make that representations. It’s up until the end of January they have to come forward with their concerns. I do think, I would be happy to hear from members, issues like Councillor Lobban raised but I think we need to make a very positive response to the infrastructure improvements that are coming to our area.”   See it all on video here.

Nairn Common Good report slammed as “appalling” by Councillor

It was the second meeting of the Nairn Badenoch and StrathSpey area committee today and it took place in Kinguissie this morning. There were a few Nairn items on the agenda including a Nairn Common Good report. Before the debate on this item got underway Liz said:  

"I’d just like to highlight that this is a monitoring statement that’s set out at the end of October, there are timing differences between the costs incurred and the income collected and there’s rent still due to come in. There should be a surplus at the end of the financial year.”

It was not a Nairn Councillor that was the first to comment but a Badenoch and Strathspey member, Bill Lobban that was the first to comment and he was forthright in his criticism:

”Bearing in mind that I recently found out that I’m actually, I suppose, involved in the Nairn Common Good Fund. I found this report, to be honest, appalling. If the figures that are meant to be there are not there that actually makes it worse because if you look the figures on the page at the moment, it you take out the odds and ends like the income from the Nairn games that’s not necessarily applicable every year. There’s a potential loss of eighteen and a half thousand pounds. That’s a 64% loss on your annual income. Over a 10 year period that would be a hundred and eighty thousand pounds loss on your annual income. So really, could we have this as report that’s very detailed, right up to date so we can look at not only the figures but what is wrong – because there’s something wrong.”

Liz then said: “It is a snapshot, an interim report and there will be a budget coming.”

One of the officials, William Gilfillan then commented: “Councillor Lobban is right, I wouldn’t want to duck the issue. We are stuck with some of the historical aspects of this particular reporting mechanism as well. And what the chair has said is that a good way forward would be to agree the budget at the start of the year. That is normally how Common Goods would be looked at. And then you would try to monitor that throughout the year to maintain yourself within budget. Some of the historical stuff goes back a long time and I guess goes right back to when the rents were agreed for some of these particular disposables here; where they are quite low and they are stuck with 99yr leases on them. Somebody in the past has done that. So in terms of putting all this together we will agree  the budget at the start of the year. [...] which will be difficult because historically Nairn has not had enough money to pay against expenditure against income – that needs to be looked at. 

After another intervention from the Chair Michael Green spoke:

“I just agree with Cllr Lobban, to a large extent these accounts are not really acceptable, they’re not to an acceptable standard and they are effectively not fit for purpose.”

Michael continues with comment about proposals for further action to be taken and then continued: “Going forward there are certain issues in the Nairn Common Good Fund, not least the fishing levy the rates we have to pay – we receive a peppercorn income but we have to pay currently £9,600 which if you take it and analyse it on the 99 year lease, effectively it is a million pounds plus; the requirement we will need to pay if things continue as they are – could end up trading insolvently.  That needs to be addressed and we are looking at ways to address that." 

Laurie was the next to speak: I just think the report shouldn’t have been brought to this committee in the

state it is in. I think the officials haven’t spent enough time on it really – it wouldn’t take a lot to bring it up to standard. It just shouldn’t have been brought in the state it is in.”

Cllr Lobban then continued: “Chairman, is there any way we can have an independent legal opinion on to any legal wriggle room there  may be on some of these historical leases, because with what my colleagues is saying is these could be a major part of the problem.”

Liz was in agreement but what she was to say next was perhaps indication of the (as yet) weak frontiers of the powers bestowed upon the new area bodies: “The historical leases are a big part of the problem and it would be good to get independent legal advice on that but I don’t know if it something we could agree though as an area committee. I think it is something we need to try and pursue as a ward.”

Colin then made a few brief comments including: “Clearly it is helpful to have external scrutiny from some wise minds here as well.”

Liz then finished with another comment: “I would just like to note the support that Highland Council have given Nairn Common Good through their writing off the cancellation of the 390,000 debt and the refund of the legal expenses which were charged in error.”

Update - the video is now on the Highland Council site. 

"Anarchy" without Traffic Wardens?

Back in October we reported on the Gurn that there was doubt about the future of the traffic warden service as provided by Police Scotland. At the time Liz said in response to a question from a community councillor: “I think, so far we were hoping the police would continue on in that role in the Highlands but I think the pointers are that it is going to be on the local authority to pick up the traffic wardens but I don’t think there’s going to be a budget coming across.”  More in this article here. 

Today the Inverness Courier splashes with the news that Inverness and Nairn could be without traffic wardens for up to two years as that is possibly how long it could take for the Highland Council to go through the legal machinations to take over the service. More on the front page of today's Courier and the editorial picks up on this issue too. 

Saturday's Cross Country races - pictures from Kenny MacLeod

Thanks to Kenny for these images of the X Country held in Nairn on Saturday. See individual images here and here. 
Juniors
 
Seniors

Nairn St Ninian 2 Portgordon 3 - pictures from Donald Matheson.

Individual images here.

NCFC supporters fund auction - only 24 hours left to bid for Celtic top signed by Tommy Gemmell and Jim Craig

More on the County Fans Ground Improvement Fund news pages. 

So here it is - Merry Christmas on the riverside walks but who's got Santa?

Regular riverside walkers Murd and Jock decorated the tree again earlier today. Christmas is here once again  for all the riverside regulars. 

As the Christmas tree duo were getting into the swing of it a squad of ladies off up to Cawdor for an early Christmas lunch briefly joined the proceedings and sang two carols before continuing on their merry way. Well done ladies!

More pictures here on the Gurn flickr pages. 

UPDATE: unfortunately within two hours of the scenes in this picture the wee Santa had disappeared from the tree. Murd has offered an no questions asked amnesty if it is returned, he has also enlisted the help of the massive facebook group "Nairn when you were a bairn" (nearly 2,000 members) in an effort to find Santa. 

Inquiry re shops available in Nairn - can anyone help @beautyatartisan

@GurnNurn anyone know of any shops available to rent in nairn? Suitable size for a salon.
— beauty at artisan (@beautyatartisan) December 1, 2013

Highland Council Nairn tourism report is certainly not Rosemary's baby

For Gurnites Rosemary Young will need no introduction, for anyone just passing by however, here is a bit of profile: she has been involved in the tourism industry locally for a considerable time, she is an active Rotarian, having held the high heid yin post in the Nairn branch of that august organisation. She has street cred too for direct action see this article here. She was also instrumental in the massive peaceful protest that influenced a “seismic” planning decision by Highland Council (images here).  She is the chair of Nairn West CC and when

you will have had the pleasure of seeing her sitting at joint CC meetings along with Tommy Hogg and Dick Youngson, of River and Suburban CCs respectively, at the top table, then you will have witnessed a formidable fighting team doing their best for the interests of Nairn. Rosemary has given the Gurn her thoughts on a tourism paper that the Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey committee will be discussing next week. Some gurnites have already given their thoughts in the comments section  on this article here. 

Anyway Gurnshire, this is what Rosemary told us:

"Once again we are being subjected to a long paper from Tourism HC to instruct it seems (although some sentences need to be read several times over to get the sense) our new group with Team Leader to look at tourism.

Well it’s just too late to start thinking about it all.  What needs to happen is highlighted below in five items. We don't need interfering council officials telling us about tourism because they don't know as much as we who are actively involved in it.  For twenty years now I have thrown myself into tourism in this town and it is a thriving industry and could in fact be even more successful with very little effort.  Now is the time to stop the rhetoric and the consultations, let alone the charrettes, workshops and blue sky thinkings. We know what tourists want:

A good place to stay

A good place to eat

A good place to play

We have all those in abundance in this town but what we don't have is the following and these are the things which are most often pointed out to us by our visitors and this is what they say:

Town Centre looks dreadful

Traffic lights gridlocked us

Lovely buildings look dilapidated and derelict

Harbour could look a whole lot better

You need a fully functioning tourist information centre

I add the last one with some reservation as the Community and Arts Centre have done amazing work for the tourism industry but they are wholly underfunded.

Just a few thoughts from a tourism and hospitality person at the coal face.  Elected councillors take note and use what funds we have to do the list and not keep talking about the list".  Read the report here. 

Saints 2 Portgordon 3

Unlucky Saint Ninian missed a chance to get off the bottom of the table today as they put up an impressive fight against high-flying Portgordon. More images later.

Yes campaign activists report very positive reaction on Nairn High Street

The Yes Campaign told the Gurn that they'd had a very productive time on the High Street today. One wee problem however, a unionist seagull sitting on the top of the lampost above the information table made its own contribution to the debate in the time honoured way according to one of the activists.

South Nairn housing development refusal – Consortium to appeal to Scottish Government

Back in September after a demonstration by Nairn residents, Highland Council refused planning permission to the South Nairn planning application by the consortium of three house building companies. Pictures of that day here. 

This morning the PandJ reports that there will be an appeal. They quote a company spokesman Derrick Thomson:  “Having considered our position in great detail, the consortium will be lodging an appeal against the decision relating to our last planning application in Nairn South.” 

How the appeal process works and the responsibilities of the Reporter who will be appointed by the Scottish Government is outlined on this web page – it has been suggested to this observer by some of the usual suspects that there will be a public local inquiry held with evidence given locally. Also currently going through the Highland Council process is the rival application for South Nairn which has been submitted on the behalf of Charles Allenby. 

At the Subbies (Nairn Suburban Community Council) meeting on Tuesday night  held in Nairn Academy Dick asked Colin when the Allenby application would come before the Council, he said: 

“Colin will probably know, is it in January?”

Colin (Vice Chair of the Highland Council South Planning Committee) replied: 

“It’s scheduled January, but who knows, kind of thing, it is scheduled for January.”

Dick went on to say: “It will be quite interesting because really it’s not quite the same area of ground, it covers Lochdhu as well as the Balblair area. He hasn’t got quite the same access onto the Cawdor Road, he’s very dependent on Balblair Road. It’s not quite as easy or as difficult as the case may be.”

Charles Allenby’s application submitted by Muir Smith Evans can be view on this Council e-planning page. The application has attracted objections just as the previous one from the consortium did. 

Championing Nairn town centre.

Michael Green was present at the Suburban CC meeting on Tuesday night and he had news of a town planning conference he’d attended in Inverness. He told the Subbies:

“Basically this is the Scottish Government’s response to the town centre initiative; it’s very, very encouraging. What the whole report speaks about is putting power back to local communities and trying to get life back into town centres. I attended last week the Highlands and Islands Institute of Town Planners conference and it was a fabulous day. The amount of activity that is going on the length and breadth of Scotland in various town centres that I was totally unaware of from Orkney down to Biggar – it is absolutely fabulous, the activity that is going on. I read the reports, having looked through everything, having discussed this with a lot of the delegates: Craig MacLaren, the National Director of the Institute of town planners; Professor Cliff Haig; leading experts in their field. I spoke to Derrick MacKay on Thursday at a breakfast meeting and put forward the idea which I am putting forward to the area committee. Which is for the area committees to have town centre champions. Because the report and the response is all about ownership and it is all about leadership.

At this conference there were only three councillors there and I would suggest that to leave it up to Highland Council, councillors, under the current structure I don’t think is going to get us where we want to be. I think if you can get town centre champions, folk who will take on the role, who will actually engage with these various people who will draw in resources, will actually drive the whole project forward. If we do it on a broad front I think it just creates inertia. I think if you can have the concept of town centre champions who will actually pick up this project and drive it forward, I think will be a real step in the right direction. So I put that on the agenda, it’s going to be discussed, I’ve already circulated it to the Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey committee and I’ll be speaking to Thomas Pragg about getting it adopted to the Council because I do think this needs, as the report states, it’s not just my opinion it’s what the report says, it needs ownership and it needs leadership.”

At this point Martin Ashford made and intervention: “Who will it be Michael, these town centre champions? Will the be employed or volunteers?”“Absolutely not, they will be councillors. They will roll their sleeves up and get on with it.”

“Are you volunteering,” asked Martin.

“Yes,” replied Michael. […] I’ll make time because I can think of nothing more important than this.”

Michael’s optimism and suggested initiative was well received by the usual suspects and also a few members of the public in attendance. 

Plans for Nairn’s development – will you be affected? You have until Dec 13th to comment

This observer went to the Highland Council’s information event last night in the Community Centre. It had been billed as a 4-8 p.m. event, I arrived around half seven and about 30 folk were sitting in rows receiving a presentation and it was after 8.30 pm before it was all done and dusted. See picture below of all the colour coded areas that the Highland Council wish to see developed in the future. 

Serious concern was expressed about the traffic impact on the town and the countryside of any and all of these developments. Particular mention was made of Lochloy Road with existing development and the proposed NA2 area* which is now a preferred Highland Council site for 90 houses; how traffic would impact with 30 houses on half of the Showfield, particularly with the existing conditions on Waverly Road; the continuing use of Auldearn as a rat run to avoid Nairn was mentioned and the general dangerous driving conditions that are now emerging in many areas locally as impatient people seek alternative routes. There were other concerns too that have often been heard at meetings in Nairn over recent years. 

To their credit the planners did say that future traffic levels in Nairn would be alleviated by the construction of a bypass (a must for them just as much as it is for the townsfolk) but those assembled remained highly sceptical of these plans and unconvinced by the presentation. On Tuesday night at the Suburban CC meeting Colin told that meeting that his gut feeling was that a bypass would be completed in 5 years. A best to middle best case scenario there? Would a future government of a different complexion (perhaps in an independent Scotland) feel bound by any promises made to Nairn in 2013? In the meantime just how much development can Nairn take without a bypass?

You can see the map and the explanation of all the zones detailed here starting on page 63 of this document. If you are either for or against any of these developments you can submit your details online here.

For more details of this plan that is under consultation at the moment there is a Gurn page here with links to Highland Council information and also a Gurn reader's take on it all. 

*Interestingly it was pointed out that this site could contain a through road that would connect up with the existing developments in Lochloy and provide another way in or out of the housing schemes that are at the further end of this area already.

Nairn Tourism - article on BBC site

"Seaside town needs tourism boost suggests report" more on the BBC site. Mention there of our positive attributes as a destination. One thing missing perhaps, surely our best beach status is worth inclusion? Regular readers will remember the good news back in Februray when Trip Advisor bestowed the Best Scottish Beach status upon Nairn. 

The Beeb article refers to a Highland Council report that Liz, Colin, Michael and Laurie and the Badenoch and Strathspey councillors will be discussing next week and can be seen here.  No mention of the Trip Advisor accolade there either. Any reaction out there to the Council report from anyone involved in Nairn's toursim sector?

Nairnshire crime wave – suspect in custody.

Sgt Graham Erskine was the police rep at the Suburban CC meeting on Tuesday night and he had good news for the usual suspects and members of the public attending the meeting. He said:

“The major criminal issue in Nairn was theft by house-breaking and theft of cars which we have been experiencing recently and has been attributed to one suspect who is highly active in our area. – splash and splinter type entry to unoccupied houses and if there is cash, jewellery and a car to steal then so much the better. I’m pleased to report he’s in police custody now. I don’t think I’m being over optimistic in expecting that type of crime to seriously diminish whilst he’s not at liberty.”

Sgt Erskine went on to say that a comprehensive police report would be sent to the Procurator Fiscal. He also reported an increase of 101 calls to the police concerning suspicious individuals or vehicles to and attributed that to awareness of that facility being discussed at community council meetings. 

Sgt Erskine said that he thought that the recent incident at the Scotmid Co-op at Lochloy Road (Gurn report here) was a “stand alone” crime even though it was in close proximity to the Bridgemill car wash machines that were broken into. He went on to say that there was a suspect identified for the coin box raids at the car wash, he said: “at the same time the Nairn machines were done there were a number of machines that were similarly broken into in Morayshire. Quite a large number, six or seven of them, Forres, Elgin, Fochabers, basically in a long line along the A96. There was a suspect identified in Morayshire.” He then indicated that investigations were still continuing into those crimes.  

Christmas River Treasure Hunt

Donna Wilson told the Gurn of a fundraiser for the Millbank School Fairbairn trip. It’s a treasure hunt around the river walks  between the Jubilee and Firhall bridges. There are 14 pictures to look for. Competition entry sheets are available from Millbank School. Donna, a regular river walker herself, says there will be a prize and she hopes that the competition will encourage a few moms and dads to take their children up to experience the riverside environment in winter.