Common Good “Death by Powerpoint?” meeting offered to CCs after an out of the blue e-mail.

At the Suburban Community Council meeting last night the latest goings on in the long running Common Good Fund stushie were made public. John Hart told the meeting:

“The original start point was a the Charrette opening, Jim MacKinnon the Chief Planner (Scottish Government), did point up with William Gilfillan that we would have a meeting between the Community Councils, ward Councillors and himself(WG) to discuss the Common Good and he asked us for an agenda which we submitted and agreed amongst ourselves, which suggested that the Common Good should be run by the community councils so there is a separation between the decision making and the managing. That agenda was rejected with the suggestion that the meeting would be a waste of time.”

John that said that an attempt was made to hold a meeting anyway with the four councillors. He continued: “On Monday I still hadn’t heard anything so I sent an e-mail to Mr MacKinnon saying we still hadn’t got a meeting and that matters relating to the Common Good as they are managed and as it’s been seen by people to be poorly managed we hadn’t moved further forward, having had the 1st March meeting effectively cancelled and out of the blue a few hours later after my e-mail an e-mail came from Louise Clark saying there was a meeting on the 5^th of March of all the community councillors – that’s all 30 of us in the Courthouse at 7.p.m on the 5^th at which they are going to do a presentation on what they have or haven’t done with the common good and we’ll see what that brings."

Brian Stewart expressed that the forthcoming meeting might be a “Death by Powerpoint” event and it should not be the Highland Council lecturing the community but rather them listening to the community.

There was then some considerable discussion on matters which serious gurnite students of common good affairs will be au fait with. It did emerge that there had been some confusion between the three CCs over the formation of the agenda but Tommy Hogg indicated that he was generally happy with the final result. There was talk of whether a meeting should go ahead before the new Highland Council is formed after the 3^rd of May elections given that faces and policy may well change. Alistair Noble was forthright in the view that all 3 CCs should be present in the best interests in Nairn given the dangers of what he perceives as divide and rule mechanisms and people playing games. He was adamant that there was a need to “focus on looking forward.” Tommy Hogg agreed and he more or less summed up the feeling of the meeting when he stated: “I think we should go for it, holding off would be a mistake to me.”

"We are at the start of taking our own community and its care back under local control"

The uprising is finally underway Gurnites and Central Command in Glenurquhart Road will read all about it on page 9 of the Courier today. The title of this post is a quote from Alistair Noble. Today's article in the paper is entitled "Nairn Seeks devolution". We certainly do! And it's time to get behind the "Usual Suspects" at their combined meetings and of course at their monthly affairs across the town.

"Top priority in a range of ideas on how Nairn can acheive its full potential is establishment of a Nairnshire Committee - similar to the Inverness City Committee, which is responsible for Inverness Common Good Fund - which would work with bodies such as Highland Council, NHS Highland and the Scottish Government."

The Gurn is proud to support those wishing to end Inverness (Highland Council) rule in Nairn. The "Nairnshire Spring" has come a bit late but it is gathering momentum.

"It’s not just about planning"

Alistair Noble is an individual who cares passionately about the Nairnshire community. As a Community Councillor he works on our behalf along with his colleagues on Suburban, River and West CC’s. This observer wishes that our Highland Councillors would show and articulate a bit of the vision that Alistair has for Nairn and the County beyond. Here’s just a little of what he had to say on Tuesday night at the CC meeting:

"There seems to be a movement back to localities, back to locals being involved in the planning and in my opinion, and you’ve heard me say this consistently, it’s not just about planning, it’s not just about housing, it’s about the whole integrated resource framework, it’s about Health & Social Care, it’s about a whole lot of issues that are going to come our way and I think it’s really important that we’ve got a fantastic opportunity here with the decision around Nairn Community Councils and to a certain extent things like the Nairnshire Partnership to actually getting back to a clear planning process that everyone understands. "

Thank goodness we’ve got folk like Alistair involving themselves in these matters on our behalf. The only limit to our success as a community is ourselves, does anyone else feel that Highland Council sometimes acts as nothing more than an obstacle to that?

Sandown Inquiry: A conflict of interest concerning some evidence?

Drs Joan and Alistair Noble e-mailed the Inquiry Reporters with their concerns re a part of the evidence given in the inquiry. You can see both their e-mail and the Reporters' response on this DPEA webpage. Note the response comes first followed by the Nobles' e-mail below.