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Monday, October 31, 2011

Big Society or NICE Big Bang?

After a summer off NICE have come back big style and drawn up a briefing document on how a Community Interest Company could, could….well, sort of, er, run Nairn really. Common Good assets could be piled in to get it going. It’s certainly an ambitious project and NICE say they would have to get all the following on board:

Highland Council, NHS Highland,The Co-Op as owners of the defunct filling station, The Co-Op as owners of a supermarket that would benefit from regeneration of the town centre, The owner of the old bus station, The owner of the existing library building and adjacent car parking area, Local Elected Councillors, Community Councils and the Community and NICE’s members”

They envisage the following:"“It has been suggested that the long term interests of Nairn and its residents would be to establish an entity that is (a) owned and controlled by the local community, (b) provides a mechanism for other stakeholders (eg Highland Council and NHS Scotland) to influence and support decision-making, and (c) progressively assumes responsibility for a wide range of local service provision and infrastructure development and maintenance.”

To see how they plan to get there and what they hope to offer why not go over to this NICE page and read the documents concerned. Is it a revolutionary mechanism that could get Nairn sorted or could it be a dangerous leap into the unknown?

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