Thursday, August 13, 2009

A bench mark for slipping standards?



Sorry can't remember who it was but someone was gruning at the River Community Council meeting about the state of the seats on the West Pier, the general state of disrepair and the weeds and fag ends and litter underneath then. Is this the image we wish to project to tourists?
UPDATE 14.08.09: A concerned gurnite sends in this picture of the dog-jobbie bin doubling up as a litter bin in the abscence of adequate litter facilities on the pier. Our correspondent adds, 'Some Italian tourists were looking with dismay at the overflowing bin!'

25 comments:

Anonymous said...

Why is it so difficult for the Highland Council to cover such basic issues??

- Brian

growtosow said...

not sure how the they do do it. but i am sure more bins at this time of the year would help. and as for the tourists what about the locals they have to look at it as well. come on HC what are we paying for what about some pride in our town.

Anonymous said...

MAMMA MIA!

Lick O'Paint said...

I agree that the seats don't look very good but the council has had a static budget (Decreased by inflation) for a couple of years now so services are shrinking.
It's easy to take pot shots at HC but what we need are positive suggestions rather than glib comments

Graisg said...

It is good that Highland Council do manage to still cover quite a lot of basic issues very well. The scaffies would soon be missed if they didn't turn up on the High Street on Mondays and Friday - just to quote one obvious example.
However things do seem to be fraying at the edges as cuts bite to the bone.
Maybe it's come to the point where the Nairn Ranger Service should be taking volunteers out to clean up the pier and paint the benches instead of chopping up whin and broom bushes that people enjoy looking at in the spring?

Anonymous said...

Agree with your points Craisg, I wouldn't mind painting one of the seats. Wouldn't want it ot put folk out of work but perhaps the council could put out a list of work for which it needs volunteers
Let's be positive rather than sitting behind a keyboard gurning at the council not covering basic issues

No Paint said...

I will give you a positive suggestion,pull your fingers out and give the place a good clean up.The harbour area is a disgrace.
A dozen pieces of timber,a thimble of paint,and a black bag for the weeds.That is going to break the budget?

growtosow said...

well said the comment from NO PAINT. we still have pay for all of this. yet they spend money on other things that are not needed.

APTSec said...

We live in a representative and liberal democracy. This means that our human rights not withstanding, we delegate the decisions on how precious resources are allocated to others whom we elect.

We therefore have options which could include meeting with our existing elected representatives in a postive way to discuss issues which effect us or seeking to be an elected member and dealing with the problem of resource allocation directly.

Anonymous said...

Perhaps the £70 million the HC want to put forward for incinerators could be put to better use?

- Brian

Anonymous said...

No we need the incinerators to burn all the old benches on and it would save all those lorries going through to Peterhead to landfill our waste

APTSec said...

The following link will be useful to those who wish to follow up on the incinerator issue and the costs involved.

www.iintw.org.uk

APTSec said...

What about the Nairn Ward (19)Forum and your discretionary budget?

The latest agenda seems to be for May 27 2009 but there do not seem to be any meeting action notes after the 25 March.

http://www.highland.gov.uk/yourcouncil/yourward/ward19/wardforum/2009-05-27-ag.htm

Anonymous said...

We are talking roughly about £400 maximum.To repair the seats on Nairn (once called,Brighton of the North)Pier.Will that bust the Budget? Come On!Whats happened to having some pride in your town.

Graisg said...

In relation to a previous suggest by one of the anons. Those that want to the pier sorted out could just go out there and do it but it would be better to do it with the blessing of the authorities.
Does anyone out there know if there are any leagal or H&S issues that would prevent citizens just organising a time and date to go on the pier and sort it all out?

Anonymous said...

Is this going to be known as a Nairn benchmark?

£400? Even if you replaced all the timber I reckon you would be hard pushed to spend much more than a tenner a bench

Getting the old stuff off would probably be the most difficult part

Anonymous said...

Anon.When was the last time you did some repair works.£10 wouldn't buy the bolts.

Justin Timberloch said...

I have to confess that I wouldn't use a local store for the materials for the benches, but having just checked the prices at a well known DIY store I can assure you that the wood required for both benches would give you change from £10

Graisg said...

Just say enough Gurnites stopped gurning and got off our arses and arranged a day to go down there and sort it out. Would we agree on colour schemes etc.
Here's Iright's vision of how the finished article should look. Thoughts anyone?

Dreamer said...

We are talking six benches in total
If you can get all the materials at that price,your talents are wasted sitting on your computer.
You may get a job with the council
watching paint dry.

growtosow said...

sounds a bit like guerrilla gardening. lets make some paint bombs or get some of the young folk to come up with some ideas. car boot sale to raise the money for the paint timber bolts perhaps the list goes on.

Anonymous said...

excellent growtosow. You've put down the roots for the start of a revolution! Nairn goes independent and once again become The Royal Burgh? Who needs Highland Council

Anonymous said...

shouldnt of all this been spotted and fixed b4 all the visitors came to nairn !

yours outraged etc said...

yeah the gurn really needs to pull its socks up. Fancy not publishing this information until now. Just not good enough tut tut

Graisg said...

Just information gained from loitering around the River Community Council's last meeting. (centre of the local universe one evening per month) The local MSM (main stream media) were there too so perhaps more in the Nairnshire?