Monday, June 17, 2013

A tale of the riverside and grass cutting

In the URC hall last Wednesday night Tommy told his fellow River CC members of his encounter with a council employee on the riverside. He began:

"I was down at the river there a fortnight ago, this guy was there with a clipboard walking round marking things on a map." Tommy engaged the gentleman in conversation and made inquiries as to the nature of his presence. The man was a Highland Council employee and investigating areas of grass that weren't being cut and complaints from members of the public, etc. Remarkably this Council worker had come to Nairn from Fort William.

Tommy added: "He came down from Fort William. What a waste of time, money and energy." 

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

I agree that the distance travelled seems ridiculous but didn't Highland Council deploy some of it's services outwith Inverness so that it wasn't seen to be so Inverness centric?



Anonymous said...

Tommy is incorrect, he cam UP from Fort William.

Anonymous said...

Outside sources are sometimes beneficial to local communities, they have fresh eyes, can be unbiased and sometimes their input can help get the task dealt with more efficiently for all. As for highland council wasting money, this unfortunately is a long running story that doesn't look like changing yet.

MURD said...

Now here is one for you to make scene of This is part of the reply received when I complained to T.E.C.S
Thank you for getting in touch to bring this matter to our attention.

I shall pass the message and photos onto the contract supervisor for that area.

I know they are behind schedule compared to last year.


Dear Mr Dunbar

Mr Smith is not in the office today or tomorrow but I have requested a timetable for the grass-cutting in that area.

I do not hold the contact details for the contractor.

I can assure you that your concerns will be addressed.

Kind regards
I requested a contact address so as I could follow this up directly and am now at a loss to understand how my complaint was passed on if they don't have a contact address??

Anonymous said...

One more valuable visitor. Lets hope he had his lunch in one of our many cafes and perhaps a quick haircut in one of our many hairdressers.

Graisg said...

The thing is when grass cutting was controlled from Nairn, Nairn guys just went out and cut it. They didn't need maps, they just knew where it all was.
We have to move back in that direction.

Anonymous said...

As Private Fraser would have said - we're all doomed!never mind not long now till the winter sets in to allow the contractor to catch up!

Anonymous said...

Grass cutting in Nairn is a disaster this year. Years ago you came into the town on A96 & admired the lovely tidily cut grass & flowers but now its roughly cut with the grass cuttings left in heaps. Also where the daffodils have been, they've left these areas uncut & they are a total mess! What is going on & when is someone going to fix this?

Graisg said...

@ anon - the daffs are still dying back, you can't cut them until they turn brown.

Re the area you live, the situation is very complicated and suggest you speak to your local councillors.

Anonymous said...

You need to let the daffodils die back for 6 weeks after flowering - the crocus however bloomed much earlier in the year and the grass in these areas should have been cut weeks ago. Standards of Open Space maintenance have sadly been declining for years in Highland unlike other forward thinking Councils who have the foresight to understand that a clean well maintained environment can foster a sense of civic pride throughout the local community and assist in tourism promotion.