Thursday, April 04, 2024
Thursday, March 28, 2024
Farewell Murd Dunbar
Murd was determined, he was tenacious, persistent, dogged, he didn't give up as many people would have done when multiple obstacles and broken promises were chucked back at him in response to his many causes and campaigns. He was never one to be fobbed off just because someone said “No, can't do that”. Dealing with officials he was a bit like Islay and Belle in the case that you can throw a ball or a stick as far away as possible but I'll be back, I'll take it back, I'll stand at your door, your door of bureacracy. His modus operandi was keep on gurning until they do something, something he lived by even in his final weeks.
He made Community Council meetings interesting, in many way's he was their nemesis, they would have their cosy agenda and he would come along and rock their wee boat. He had his opinions and views and if you didn't agree with them, tough, he just ignored them and carried on regardless.
Murd worked on many fronts and people used to go to him with issues which he would then raise at meetings or via the Gurn or the Nairnshire. He cared about our community and he set an example by sometimes doing the things that the authorities had neglected; repairing and painting benches, salting the bridges and clearing the leaves and, of course, he occasionally had something to say about the Firhall Bridge! I often feel that he was more value than some of those that are paid handsomely to represent the community to sort things out. Personally, I think he was much more in touch with folk than many of the various representatives. He got off his backside and got on with it.
Of course, Murd made use of the information super highway in other ways by highlighting issues on social media – he was a campaigner for houses to be built for the town’s young people among other things. Murd cared, he knew that a community ignores the needs of the young at its peril.
He was a contributor to the Gurn in its heyday. Our Riverside and Queenspark correspondent and often lots of other stuff. Any message left on the answerphone always went the same way, “Hi Des, Murd here, here, listen, and then there would follow something along the lines of I've just sent you, run it by you, see what you think”....
And it’s all there, the Gurn has been a bit quieter the last couple of years but if you put Murd Dunbar in the search box you’ll have a few hours reading material that will come up. The hospital bus stop, the state of the riverside paths, the state of the benches, the Firhall Bridge!
Murd, in his own way was an innovator, someone who did things before other people. He embraced his electric bikes and many a time he, tinkered. You would often see him coming hurtling towards you around the river on his bike, feet out, coming to a stop because the brakes just weren't quite working properly at that moment but that never stopped him. The craic was tremendous, pure Nairn born and bred, a priceless way of looking at the world and sharing his wisdom.
So Murd, wherever you are now I hope you're standing at that door giving them what for and not going away – just like the time an MP seeking re-election came to Queenspark with a TV camera crew and his assistants – they chose the right door that day!
They all came to him, the politicians, the high heid yins, the officials. He never asked them to but his sheer force of nature meant they knew better then ignore him.
When it’s time to put the festive decorations on your tree up the river at the end of the year, I’ll be there to raise a dram to you and the well-lived life that was yours, your achievements and your impact that made our community a better place.
Here’s to you Murd, all the best!
Soraidh slàn a charaid, clach air do chàirn.
Tuesday, March 26, 2024
Fabulous news for Nairn High Street - The Original Factory Shop is coming to town!
Regular visitors to the High Street may have noticed a couple of guys working in the former McKays. And now a Facebook page has appeared: more information here.
Good to see a national store chain wishing to invest in our High Street and fill up a big gap where the former McKays was situated.
Monday, March 11, 2024
"Invitation to pay" to go ahead for Links amenity and splash pad area
Item 6.4.2 of the "Nairn Common Good Fund – 2022/23 Audited Accounts, 2023/24 January Monitoring and General Update, Proposed Budget 2024/25" which went before the Nairnshire Area Committee last Monday 4th of March read:
"Discussions have taken place during 2023/24 with Highlife Highland, #TeamHamish and THC Facilities Management, in an attempt to find a more affordable but effective method of cleaning at the Splashpad in light of escalating costs. Options are being progressed on best value principles to commission THC Facilities Management to carry out the periodic deep cleaning of the Splashpad at a cost of £2,840 per clean. The existing contract with HLH will continue with spray washing weekly and a further deep clean scheduled as required using THC Facilities Management.
Monthly monitoring of the cleaning will be done by the Nairn Common Good Fund Officer to ensure it remains in good, clean order and reflects positively on the partners and community.
At the request of a previous meeting of Committee work is ongoing to develop an invitation to pay donation scheme for the NCGF Links amenity facilities proposals will be brought to a future meeting of the Committee."
This now goes through - you can see all this and more in the Video of the meeting embedded below.
Friday, March 08, 2024
NCFC fans Ground Improvement Fund organises Whisky Tasting and 50/50 draw
Fans' Ground Improvement fund @NairnCounty Help raise £500 funds for new floodlighting at Station Park Please #donate on @justgiving and RT https://t.co/EondiCbVkz
— A Gurn from Nurn (@GurnNurn) March 8, 2024
Monday, February 19, 2024
Gurn twitter account - usually a lot of interesting stuff
In the meantime if there's not much being posted here it's worth having a look at the Gurn twitter account. Quite a lot happens in the Nairn twittersphere these days and you can scroll down the wee twitter box on the right hand side as far as you like to see what the latest craic is. You don't have to have an account to look at tweets either.
Tweets by @GurnNurn
Monday, February 05, 2024
Cllr Paul Oldham continues to keep us all up to date: "Haventus are intending to create a £1,000,000 Community Fund to benefit the communities around the port over the next ten years."
Cllr Paul Oldham recently attended a community liaison group meeting down at the Haventus site. He also gives us a fair amount of detail of other information provided by the company - for all this and more head over to Paul's weekly newsletter.
Tuesday, January 30, 2024
Nairn East Housing Development no more?
Before the proposed development at Nairn East goes ahead it looks very much like a bypass will have to be built. Cllr Paul Oldham outlines it all in an excellent informative article. He says:
Thursday, January 25, 2024
Nairn Common Good Fund Engagement. Provost Laurie Fraser states: "I feel the first two or three of these meetings are just going to be nothing more than an almightly bun-fight"
Our four local Highland Councillors were less than impressed with some of the comments received on a recent cosultation for a proposed "Nairn Common Good Fund Engagement Group". Here at the Gurn we had hoped the tradtional fault line that has been the Nairn Common Good Fund in our local civic life could have been consigned to history. We hope that still happens but the omens don't look good before the engagment group even starts. The conversation on this topic can be seen on the embedded video of when this item was being discusessed at Monday's (22nd January) Nairnshire committee.
In his weekly newsletter Cllor Paul Oldham states:
"Before we went ahead with creating this engagement group officers consulted with groups in the town who we thought might be interested in being involved and they reported back on the results of that at Area Committee. I was disappointed with many of the very negative responses and said as much when we got to this item.
Councillor Fraser, who followed me, said that I had summed things up very well and he wasn’t optimistic but he reluctantly said that we should go ahead with this group, and we agreed to do that for two years, with a review after one year to see if we wanted to continue into the second year."
Other topics on Pau's excellent newsletter this week include: Council budget, Area Committee, Regeneration funding, garage rent and roads. We would urge all readers with an interest in local government matters to head over there for a read.
Fines coming for pavement parking, starting February
Wednesday, January 24, 2024
Progress on a community newspaper for Nairnshire
Tuesday, January 23, 2024
Community Regeneration Funding awarded to Nairnshire organisations
Nairnshire Committee Members considered and assessed applications submitted to the area’s Community Regeneration Fund.
The successful applicants were the Nairn Improvement Community Enterprise (NICE) (who secured £11,000 for their TeamHamish Nairn Links Regeneration project) and Nairn BID (who secured £5,093.53) for the Nairn Heritage Trail project.
Community Regeneration Funding is an umbrella term for a number of funds that are available for communities/organisations to access in Highland. It comprises elements of the UK Government’s Shared Prosperity Fund along with the Highland Coastal Communities Fund and the Place Based Investment Programme, both of which are Scottish Government Funding streams to support economic regeneration and sustainable development in Highland.
Councillor Michael Green, Chair of the Nairnshire Area Committee, congratulated the successful applicants and said: “We are delighted to be able support NICE and Nairn BID – these organisations have sound plans in place to deliver projects for the benefit of the local community and have a great deal of backing from residents throughout the area.
“For NICE in particular, today’s award marks the completion of their fundraising for this phase of the project and will enable this to get underway during the Spring.”
£11,000 was awarded to the Nairn Improvement Community Enterprise (NICE) for the second phase of the TeamHamish Nairn Links Regeneration. This project, which is due to commence from March 2024, will involve redevelopment of the area of the Links currently occupied by the existing putting green, crazy mini golf and adjacent banking and grassed areas. Through a holistic approach, NICE aims to revitalise the existing area and utilise the natural environment to enhance how these areas are currently used, encouraging a more integrated and cohesive purpose for both individual contemplation and social interaction through the creation of a journey of connecting spaces and places.
Meanwhile, Nairn BID was awarded £5,093.53 for its Heritage Trail project, which will replace and augment Nairn’s heritage interpretation boards and create a Heritage Trail, backed up by online resources and interactivity. The project is designed to help visitors to the area learn more about Nairn’s heritage, while providing local people a sense of ownership and input into the way in which the town’s heritage is presented.
Tuesday, January 16, 2024
Nairn bypass "I am, like everyone I think, pretty cynical about when we will get the bypass but it looks as if things are still moving forward, even if it seems to be at a glacial pace." Cllr Paul Oldham
Writes Councillor Paul Oldham in his latest weekly newsletter. More about the bypass and other topics on Paul's website here.
Saturday, January 13, 2024
"A perfect storm for charities and voluntary groups" SCVO outline serious issues facing the third sector
Friday, January 12, 2024
"Nairn West & Suburban Community Council in Abeyance - Seeks Additional Members in Upcoming Nominations Process"
"NWSCC fell into abeyance in October 2023 for failing to meet the minimum number of six nominations to form a council. The former members are presently meeting as an in formal 'community group' until a second opportuntiy is provided by Highland Council to form a council in January 2024.
Between 15-30 January 2024, Highland Council will be seeking online nominations from residents in the catchment area to form the Community Council."
Want to get involved? More information here.