Saturday, March 20, 2010

Fosters Highland League Cup: Nairn 2 Cove 1

The league leaders returned after beating Nairn at Station Park last Saturday 1-5 but Groundhog day it was not. Nairn reduced to 9 men had to endure an eternity of injury time before the referee finally blew the whistle. Cove are out of the cup and a resurgent County march on.

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Morning Gurnites

Good morning Gurnshire, we've got one or two articles to put up over the weekend but we're going to leave Hughie's fantastic video near the top for most of the day and may put it back on top for Monday morning too - the video is generating quite a bit of interest. Great job Hugh! The video has only just been uploaded onto Youtube but is already attracting interest around the world, here's a graphic from Youtube.

It's a fresh morning but the light rain seems to have ceased. The first daffodils are making serious efforts to open now. On Wednesday this observer saw a bee, tempted out by the sunshine, on some flowering heather close to the beach. Further into the town a wasp too yesterday. Turning the corner at last? Today Cove return in the League Cup, no doubt hoping to emulate their five goal performance from their previous visit last Saturday. If Nairn continue on the high from the mid-week victory over Huntly then Cove's mission will not be so easily accomplished this time round. Have a good weekend Gurnites!


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Friday, March 19, 2010

Hugh McBean's walking guide to Nairn

Thanks to Doc Grigor for this link. Hughie needs no intro for Gurnites but if you're just visiting the Gurn or thinking of coming to Nairn on holiday perhaps you'd like to know a little more about our favourite postie, this P&J article will give you an idea of what a great guy he is.  Hugh has made a first class video that sings just a few of Nairn's praises.

Anyway here's Hugh's video - enjoy the walk and your holiday in Nairn :-)


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Highland Council looking to Westminster for pothole cash

The Press and Journal again:

'Highland Council is to write to the chancellor to seek emergency funds for the cost of repairing potholes after the worst winter for decades.
The authority’s transport director told councillors, meeting in Inverness yesterday, that the big December and January freeze had blown a £1.5million hole in the council’s budget that would have to be carried over into the 2010-11 financial year.'

Another burden on an organisation creaking under the strain. It appears also that the Council may use part-time fire-fighters for winter maintenance duty in the future.  More in the P&J.

Meanwhile the Council is hopeful of saving money on a new ICT deal (information and communication tecnology).  Another page on the Council's site gives details of another regular item that has to be met on the budget - the details of how much the Heads of Department earn.  


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Junior World bairns get onto the railway

The Press and Journal reports:

'An investigation is under way after three nursery children were able to walk across a railway line to retrieve a lost toy.
Youngsters at Junior World nursery at Nairn gained access to the tracks by crawling under a security fence adjacent to the Aberdeen-Inverness line.
Network Rail yesterday admitted the fence had been “incorrectly” installed because a gap had been left at the bottom of the wire, which was large enough for small children to squeeze through.'

When you consider the massive investment made recently in new fencing along the railway in Nairn, one wonders how more attention wasn't paid to ensure that this wouldn't happen.

More here: Nairn youngsters able to crawl under fence and cross tracks to retrieve toy


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Thursday, March 18, 2010

Integrated public transport systems 1855

Mrs Gurnmeister was complaining that her train from Aberdeen was an hour late earlier this week. A sobering thought however for anyone worried about delays on the local line, to think that in the days when the railway only extended as far as Nairn from Inverness that you would need another seven and a half hours on the Stagecoach to even reach Huntly! At least the transport system was integrated, there must have been unity among the Community Councils of the time. 
Thanks to Irene for another snippet from her extensive research. 

Click on image to enlarge.


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Tilda perfume in the shops soon

One of our regular correspondents reports that Tilda has launched a perfume. The Nairn film star has developed her own perfume with one of the concepts being that she will reminded of sitting by her fire in Nairn on a Sunday afternoon. Lots more details about the new Tilda pefume here.

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Councillor Vine: 'The sums add up.'

Graham Vine the West Community Council's treasurer reported that the Council had a balance of £2,167 in the bank with an outstanding bill of £225. Now how much does the Tourist Information Centre need to open for business again this year? :-)

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Highland Council cuts - the Tory view

Maybe this observer is not looking hard enough but feels that there isn't really a lot of material out there from the PPCs (Prospective Parliamentry Candidates) for this constituency, Inverness, Nairn Badenoch and Strathspey.

Interesting then to read the view from Jim Ferguson the Conservative PPC:
'The national percentage for those who are over 60 in scotland is 19%. That percentage increases to 34% for the Highlands and Islands. This percentage for the Highlands will increase by 10% every 5 years so its imperative that proper planning and a full strategic review is carried out in order to ensure adequate health care provision accross the Highlands and islands.
I am disapointed to see that the Highland Council who now have to make £12 million pounds of savings are cutting front line services in areas such as care workers who are a lifeline to many families across this region.
The SNP, Labour and LibDems have all had an opportunity at running the Highland Council but have failed to achieve the outcomes that the people need. Their in-fighting and petty politics have caused inaction and a failure to properly provide for the elderly community which is growing at an incredible rate.
There really does have to be some common sense introduced so that we dont end up with a situation where we simply dont have the resources to cope.
Add to this the fact that we have had huge numbers of Eastern Europeans migrating to the Highlands who have not being paying contributions to the country but who quickly claim all their entitlements and we see a recipe for disaster due to not having the care provision and infrastructure to cope. The Labour Government were warned that this would happen but neither they nor the LibDems were prepared to listen and simply used political correctness as a weapon to silence their critics. '
Jim should perhaps mention the 'Independent' Party, after all they still have a big say in the running of the Council. Anyway, there's more on the candidate's blog.

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Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Nairn 1 Huntly 0

Joy at Station Park as Campbell breaks the deadlock towards the end of the second half, showing what he can do when he doesn't get a red card. Nairn finished really well, good omens for another crack at Cove in the cup this Saturday. We'll link to the match details once the appear on Highlandleague.net.
No report on the league's site yet but here's something in the Press and Journal.

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West Community Council supports Gaelic on path signs

The West Community Council voted, on the Chair’s casting vote, to support bilingual path signs in Nairn. The Gaelic element of the signs will be funded by Bòrd na Gàidhlig – the Government Quango responsible for implementing the Scottish Government’s Gaelic act. There was a lively discussion on the merits of Gaelic signs with support from most of the members of the public present. Graham Vine and Seonaid Armstrong voted against the proposal with Jim Ferguson and Rosemary Young in favour. Brian Stewart, with mixed feelings abstained. Ailidh Chisholm the Nairn Academy rep on the Council was in favour but is not actually a voting member of the organisation. The Casting vote fell to Rosemary Young. Jimmy Ferguson’s pragmatic approach of using the extra funding available just to get new signs was probably an indication of how you have to grasp every opportunity available in these new, credit-crunched times. The Gurn understands that last week the River Community Council voted emphatically against any Gaelic on path signage however.
The Gurn supports Gaelic but accepts there are those who would legitimately argue that Gaelic is irrelevant to the modern world, it is a fair basis for argument but there can be no denying the unmistakeable element of Gaelic heritage in Nairnshire. According to the last census there are 200 speakers of the language in Nairn and another 100 capable of understanding the language. There is also now a Gaelic unit at Millbank primary and a well supported and successful Gaelic choir. Gaelic culture is an element Nairnshire life in 2010, by no means as strong as in 1891 when 23% of the residents spoke Gaelic according to the census at the time but Gaelic is still here and may be around for some time yet.

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Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Nairn to lose tourist information point?

It emerged at this evening’s meeting of the West Council that a lack of funding could mean that Nairn will not have a Tourist Information Point this summer. £2,000 is needed urgently if the successful ‘partnership' information point in the Community Centre is to go ahead again this year. Councillor Rosemary Young pointed out the irony if a town voted the no 2 world destination in an online TripAdvisor poll had no Tourist Information Centre.

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A96 gets recycled

Thanks to our regulars for pointing out the following:
'The A96 has taken an awful battering from the frost and contractors have been out planing the tar off long sections between here and Brodie prior to re-laying the surface. The contractor is keen to get rid of the old stuff nearby so we have been buying lorry loads of the planings at £100 a time to repair the farmyard. '
For more of the goings on down at a local farm click here.

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Tuesday morning press review

Your weekly 40p special treat is a 16-pager. It will perhaps be remembered as the edition that charts the current, considerable woes of the River Community Council with both a front page article and a further article inside discussing issues of transparency concerning the Council. There's a few articles for Ardersier and Croy readers this week and an article concerning ownership of the Cawdor Hall. The last days of the Sandown Inquriy of well covered and again present essential reading material for those wishing to stay fully informed on local planning matters.
An enlightening article on the 'Herring Girls' that is record of a recent talk at the Nairn Literary Institute. This week there are pictures from the Auldearn Guides celebration. In the ads section, Cawdor Castle are looking for seasonal workers plus a full-time admin assistant. You'll be able to read a two-page sports section with a report on Saturday's defeat for the Wee County against Cove plus Equestrian, Indoor Bowling, Golf, Tae Kwon Do, Shooting, Curling, Dominoes and Chess reports. All this and much more.
Apart from events at the River Community Council this edition is also striking for Iain Bain's editorial. He outlines his concerns at how the Sandown application gathered momentum but also takes a swipe at the objectors. Interesting reading Gurnites.

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Monday, March 15, 2010

Highland Wide Local Development Plan - The responses are online

Thanks to APT for alerting us on their blog. There are a large number of responses in and some from the Nairnshire area including local community councils and the Nairnshire Farming Society and Cawdor Estates.

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Looking forward to the boats coming in?

There were some quite impressive cruise liners to be seen heading for Invergordon through the Sutors last year. One of our correspondents alerts us to the fact that the anticipated list of arrivals this year is already up on the Invergordon Port site in PDF format.

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Danny wants to make you a millionaire!

'Someone in our area could have a big surprise waiting for them at the bottom of an old jacket pocket, or at the back of a cupboard drawer.
"It's well worth having a good look in the next week, because the surprise will not be such a nice one if the winning ticket turns up after next Monday.'

More on our local MP's website
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Free seeds

Thanks to the green-fingered Gurnite who tipped us off about the free seeds offer on one of the BBC sites.
'Fill in the form below to apply for your free seeds. Once we get your application, we'll send you a packet of each of the five Dig In veg - mixed salad, courgette, french bean, basil and carrot. You'll also get a handy booklet alongside them, explaining how to grow them.'
Looks straight forward, hopefully the seeds will reach Gurn HQ soon, it was almost warm today wasn't it?

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Sunday, March 14, 2010

'Time for a single Community Council for Nairn'

Want to see more democracy for Nairn? Yes? Then follow the new arrival in the Nairn Blogosphere.
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An access ramp at Househill - but then where would you go?

It was stated by Provost Liz MacDonald at the last Ward Forum meeting that the Nairn Access Panel’s priority for the riverside was for ramps to be put in place at the Househill path steps on the riverside walk..
The initiative to install ramps here comes from the Highland Council. The Gurn was told recently by a Highland Council official that the ramps had been costed at approximately £6,000 on a ‘bag of a fag packet’ calculation. That’s fair enough but this correspondent is left wondering why this actual site is a priority.
If permission were granted from the landowner to build the ramp then just where exactly would this improved access lead to? On the other side of the steps from the river there are three gates almost flush with the small path which widens out to a track that would surely need upgrading. Presumably the price includes moving at least two of these gates and the surrounding fencing? The track then leads to the Crook Road. This track is an access route for farm machinery. If the object of this ramp would be to create a round trip of some kind then the next nearest footpath is some hundreds of meters away on the Grantown Road along a single track road that can become quite busy during peak periods as drivers look for ways home avoiding the A96. If people were encouraged to use this ramp would it not be safer and make better sense to create a car park here?
Is this really the best way to spend £6,000 when with a little bit of imagination a solution to providing better access to the Firhall Bridge could be found?
We enclose pictures with this article that show the Househill steps from the river, the gates on the other side of the bank, a picture of the tack surface and views up and down the Crook Road as a vehicle passes.
For more pictures and larger versions of the images below please click here.







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Last Sunday's 10k and fun run pics

Have you seen the pictures yet?


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Saturday, March 13, 2010

Piccolo press back in action

Fully back in action after a flood the popular Fishertown printing company have now published pictures of the devastation on their web site. 
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Coming soon a new Gurn blog: 'Time for a single Community Council for Nairn!'

The time has come Gurnites. Nairn is capable of punching its weight in the Inverness dominated world and the Royal Burgh of Nairn Community Council would be the ideal democratic forum to do that. Since the demise of the old Nairnshire District Council there has been a democratic deficit within the County Boundaries. 

''Time for a single Community Council for Nairn!' will be hitting the digital presses  for (hopefully) the Monday morning edition but if you are standing in the digital queue at the virtual Co-op with 40p in your hand perhaps you might get a sneak preview tomorrow night. This new blog will argue the case for a Royal Burgh Council but in the interests of Democracy will also carry information on what some consider the pitfalls. There will be information on how you can contribute to the debate and help the dream come true. When you think about it Gurnites - what on earth would be wrong with a democratically elected body called 'The Royal Burgh of Nairn Community Council' meeting in the Courthouse and expressing the  views of the town's residents in a world that increasingly sees Nairn as simply a suburb of Inverness.  Let's go for it! There will be a consultation period between April and June, we have to act, the chance might never come again.


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Gurn mission statement update

'Blogging from Nairn: sometimes satirical, sometimes silly, sometimes serious but hopefully giving a flavour of life in our community,' claims the Gurn. Perhaps we should add to that our ambition to become the house journal of the Nairnshire Freedom Party in their efforts to end Inverness domination and establish home rule for Nairn. 

We also like to encourage others to blog and it was good to hear a Gurnite who works overseas say how much he enjoys reading the Gurn and those others in the Blogroll - 'Apart from Bill Cameron,' he said. I'm sure Bill will be delighted to know he has had that sort of impact :-)  We'll keep on adding as much crac to the show as we can but it is the Gurnites out there that add so much to the fun. The tools are yours too Gurnites, with the publishing tools that the web offers you can have your message out there too. If you are thinking of starting a blog or already have one that we haven't noticed please let us know and we'll put it in that wee list in the sidebar. Here's a video on how to blog, within minutes you could be adding to the Gurnosphere carry-on.


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Nairn 1 Cove 5


Pictures will enlarge. The second image shows Tony Low's goal going into the net. Nairn never lived up to the promise (perhaps even dare we say flashes of genius) of the first half and Cove stepped forward to claim their three points to stay at the top of the league. More pictures later perhaps and a link to a full match report once it appears on HighlandLeague.net.


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Game on at Station Park

Rumours circulating over the last 24 hours could well be true, there is every likelihood that there will be a home game played at Station Park at 3.00 p.m. this afternoon. Highland league champions Cove will be through looking to maintain their title challenge. 

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Murd on Google street view

'Not in the slightest bit concerned by privacy issues,' Murd told the Gurn.
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Highland Council and WWF's Earth Day - A Gurnite's money saving tip

One of the Gurn's readers has drawn our attention to more information on the Highland Council website:

'The Highland Council is supporting the WWF’s Earth Hour 2010 and on Saturday 27 March will be joining million of people across the globe by switching off lights to seven prominent landmarks for an hour in a demonstration of support for people and wildlife threatened by climate change.

From 8.30pm to 9.30pm the floodlighting to Inverness Castle, the Cathedral, Ness Bridge, the Hector Macdonald Monument in Dingwall, the Ross Institute in Halkirk and the Thomas Telford Bridge in Helmsdale will be switched off, while in Lochaber every second lighting column along the Caol to Kilmallie Road will be turned off.'

Why not leave them switched off all the time? Suggests a concerned resident of Gurnshire. 


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Friday, March 12, 2010

Anyone up for a bit of consultation?

A bit heavy so early in the morning but Highland Council are looking for consultation on their Housing Strategy. An alert Gurnite has spotted this information on the council website.  We should really put in strong responses from Nairn if we are to influence what kind of housing gets built here in the future.  No doubt it will be another set of documents that get forwarded to Nairnshire's community councils. There must be a few community councillors out there with houses full of documents that have to be read and commented upon. Here at the Gurn we think that that is another good reason to have just one Community Council for the town, the work of interpreting these documents and deciding what is the best response for the community would not have to be repeated three times over and as an offshoot of that maybe one or two trees could be saved.  More on the Highland Council's housing strategy however:

'Highland's Housing Strategy proposes six main outcomes which the Council wants to achieve, these are that:
people are best able to live in suitable, and affordable housing, through increased supply in the best places and improved access routes to a wide range of housing choices.
owners and renters are able to live in sustainable, energy-efficient houses which are in good condition and, for renters well managed.
fewer households living in fuel poverty.
more people with community care needs successfully living at home independently.
fewer households experience homelessness through increased prevention and the delivery of responsive, effective services.
we have strong and support communities which have a long term future where people feel safe; where the impact of disadvantage is reduced and where public services are delivered well and provide value for money.'

More here for those that are interested and we should be really but reading all the documents coming out for public consultation is a full-time job in itself. Maybe the town's community councillors should have a clerk working for them just for that purpose alone.


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Thursday, March 11, 2010

Joe finally lost it but Sandy sorted it!

Looks like  a couple of litter and doggie jobbie hotspots have been sorted thanks to an intervention by Sandy Park. More on Joe's Swan blog. 
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