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Saturday, March 16, 2013

Time for the bypass campaign to go “in your face”?

This observer was in conversation with a regular reader last night.  Someone who has been paying close attention to the recent correspondence that West Community Council have put into the public domain. His suggestion is that it is now the time to up the ante to get through what he terms the “treacle” that those civil servants that fashion the responses for the politicians are laying down with their recent communications. His reasoning being that we have to have a campaign that catches the attention of Holyrood far more than regular correspondence with Civil Servants does. This thesis doesn’t take away anything, of course, from the work that West CC have been doing with their excellent correspondence: if nothing else, they are helping to inform the public of where we are and the minutiae of what Holyrood (via the Civil Servants) are saying, that in itself educates and leaves the community under no illusions of the task in hand.

Here we have suggested in the recent past that we should have a DIY bypass day where we all turn up on a section of the route, after seeking the relevant landowner’s permission, and get to work with our spades, barrows and even JCBs if someone could bring one or two  along. Shades of a “Calum’s Road” effort if you like. Perhaps some Gurnites might agree or think that a bit OTT but does anyone else have any ideas that might liven up a bypass campaign?

Our Correspondent suggests the idea of making the bypass the top issue for all forthcoming elections, the next, depending on Westminster events, being the Euros. He detailed how you could have a league table (points out of ten and gold stars etc) for the party that had done most to help the campaign for a bypass and indicating that perhaps they should get the public vote in Nairn. The community could persistently ask all the politicians on the doorsteps and in the press what they are doing to ensure that Nairn gets a bypass sooner rather than later. There could also be a regular bypass campaigner of the month award for the citizen or politician who had done the most on bypass affairs.
Any thoughts out there Gurnshire? Is this the sort of direction we should go in as a community? 

7 comments:

  1. Anonymous8:11 AM

    I have seen one Nairn bypass sticker on a car. Moving at the time so couldn't find out where to get one. When Keith was pushing for one it seemed as though ever second car had a "support the Keith bypass" sticker. Perhaps a start would be to have easy access to stickers which would advertise the campaign widely rather than at present through The Gurn and the Nairnshire - notwithstanding the good work done by both!

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  2. growtosow8:45 AM

    this bypass is long overdue, what a state the road is in potholes manhole covers sunk, its like a farm track, not good enough for our town something has to be done about it, ask MURD to help perhaps his hard work has got the firhall bridge moving forward, once again well done on that one.

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  3. J MacClarkson2:27 PM

    Car use is in free fall thanks to ever rising fuel costs. My suggestion is wait a couple of years and we'll not need a bypass as hardly anyone will be able to afford to drive

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  4. Anonymous8:20 PM

    Lets all go out in our cars at the same time...put Nairn into gridlock...oh sorry that's done nearly every week lately.

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  5. Anonymous9:10 PM

    I seem to remember that there was a huge campaign to get the Elgin bypass started a couple of years back including support from the Northern Scot, but yet to see anything come of it

    I suspect that monies are going to be put to the A9 upgrade before we see movement on this front in Nairn

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  6. growtosow7:19 PM

    we could have a guide take folk around the potholes and make some money off of that, after all you can not miss them, something more for the visitors to see if they get fed up with the beach.



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  7. inver_cyclist11:07 AM

    why dont we all stop using the unofficial bypass routes via cawdor and other backroad routes for say 1 week and we'll see what the real gridlock would be like through Nairn.

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