Building a new democracy for Nairn - Can we make it happen?

It is highly likely that a lot will change in the term of the present Scottish Government. There is a school of thought that the SNP may achieve a result indistinguishable from independence by the end of their term. Whatever the final result, at the end of this Holyrood administration Scotland will probably be a lot more than just a slightly different place than it is today and the landscape of local government too will probably undergo massive changes given the majority that the SNP have in parliament.

When we look to the future and Nairn’s potential role or place in the new Scotland, then we might consider, as Alisatair Noble suggests, how the initiative to integrate Health and Social services locally can be extended into other areas of our civic life as a further test bed as to how a local democratic deficit could be righted, thus providing a role model for elsewhere. It’d be a tough task because an essentially centralising machine of Highland Council local government would have to subscribe itself to a localism agenda and allow Nairn folk to use the limited cash available in the way they saw fit. Nothing short of a revolution necessary there.

Last night Sandy was making the right platitudes but just how much would happen beyond the next election, that is to say if Sandy and his colleagues are re-elected or once their replacements are in place? Well, if the Scottish government is serious about a localism agenda then there would be pressure from the top as well as from communities below to bring about improvements in Scotland’s parochial tiers of democracy. A chance to squeeze the Invercentric bone marrow out of the Glenurquahart Road apparatus? Can it be done and have we any other alternative but to try? Here’s what Alistair had to say in the Community Centre last night:

"I don’t know if any of you have noticed today but Mr Cameron has announced that planning is not just about development and employment but has to include things like environment and people which is a massive change in policy south of the border and we’ve all had Mr Swinney’s budget today so the financial reality is that we are broke for the next 10 or 20 years, maybe longer. All I’m about to say is based on my understanding of all the good things that have happened in Nairn over the last 40 years and the long-term relationships that I think we have in Nairn between the councillors, between all members of the Nairn community and try to explain what I mean by locality planning in the context of what I’m talking about tonight in my understanding of what we have been doing in Nairn for the last 40 years.

It started when Sandy Park and I used to meet in the butcher’s shop and decide what we would do next to sort out what was happening in Nairn. And there has been some great success, this building has been a fantastic success and that has been built on a large number of Nairn people putting in a lot of work and effort. We’ve got the hospital complex which is regarded as one of the gems in the Scottish Health Service and the model in that is the model I’ll be trying to talk about tonight. That was based on years and years of hard work and people working together to make sure we got it right. I think locality planning is our understanding of our community, to be aware of its strength and to be aware of its weaknesses but above all we need to involve local people in decisions that affect them, their families and the environment. And it’s where the conflicting wishes and needs and desires are clarified and corporate decisions are made with as much openness as possible. That all sounds kind of jargony but if you look at what’s happening now there are all sorts of pressures on the system on development, on planning. Some of you might have heard me going on about Loch Flemington but if you pollute the environment you take an awful lot of time to correct your mistakes.

So if this is for real, and we accept we are under real financial pressure then we have to make the best use of whatever money we get, then can we come up with a Nairn model that is based on these long-term relationships and trust. The better the information, the easier it is for the decisions to be made, to get it right and if we get it right then we’ll all be much more happier about what’s going on. I think we are being given the opportunity now in the context of the massive changes that are going to happen in Highland around Health and Social Work going together and Highland being a pilot for an integrated resource framework. Basically it’s about a fair allocation to each locality and that locality makes best use of that. I think we genuinely need to develop a Nairn way of working which allows genuine decisions to be made on our behalf by our democratically elected representatives.

We’re not here to debate the fact that it is the MSPs and the Councillors who are actually going to make the decisions. What I think we are here to do is to try and make sure that they have as much of the right information and the right knowledge and the right expertise to make that decision correctly and if we use that local knowledge we’re much more likely to get the right decisions. So it’s a kind of combination of using the fantastic opportunities we’ve got around technology to give us a fantastic amount of information but then we’ve got to intelligibly use that information. That’s where people at the present moment are struggling because people are swamped. If you look at what goes to the Council in piles of paper 10ft high, they are discussing thing they really don’t know a lot about. If you go to the MSPs, if you go to the MPs, if you go to Europe, the same thing is happening. So in no way are we trying to say this is anything other than making the present democratic model work better. And the only way to make it work is if the locals really take part in it and we have this trust and confidence that what we are saying, what we are doing is actually in the Common Good or Nairn and that’s a concept that, as you know I think, is very sensible and sane – and it’s where we balance the conflicting pressures, disputes and debates and arguments that we are all necessarily going to have. [...]

When you start to put health and the local authority together and all the stuff that is likely to come from the Scottish Government will be around integration and best value for money and minimising waste and I think this is where we have all got to take responsibility and all work together to try and make sure that happens. Thank you."

Inverness supporting Nairn devolutionists?

It looks like a few Invernessians think it might be a good idea for Nairn to have a measure of freedom? The poll is still ongoing here. And the original article in the Courier has attracted some forthright comment. Why not pop over to the Courier and give them your thoughts?

Time for Graham Marsden to put Highland Council rule over Nairn in his binbag?

“Bring back local committee”

Screams the banner headline of the Nairnshire with their take on Alistair Noble’s submission to the Combined Community Council meeting last week. Interesting reading and subsequent comment provided from Liz and Oor Graham after the event. Although I kind of get the impression that Graham doesn’t get the idea that people in Nairn want real political power back and are not just on about expanding voluntary services. It is very difficult for Graham really, he is part of the centralising administration that has taken so much power from Nairn yet he has to go along to meetings in Nairn and listen when folk lament all that is lost and could still be lost.

Mention is also made of the low turnout on the public benches. It’s an interesting point, folk stay away from regular meetings of the CC’s but when something kicks off, like an OTT planning application, then folk will arrive in their droves. Again this observer feels that the sentiments expressed by Alistair and his colleagues will find sympathy and support from the great majority of the Nairnshire population even if they are reluctant to attend the meetings.

Iain Bain tackles the subject too in his editorial and supports the sentiment expressed last Monday night. He says:

“The final turn of the screw came in 2007 when electoral reform saw new wards brought in and the end of the Area Committee system which had preserved to a diminishing extent the shades of the former District tier of local government. We would like to return to some kind of community representation and we are in broad agreement with the principle that Dr Noble states.”

Much more of this editorial on a newsstand near you. Keep up to date with this week’s edition of the Nairnshire Telegraph.

Courier Opinion Poll - Independence for Nairn?

"Should Nairn be independent from Inverness when it comes to Highland Council decision making?"

This observer is not sure how long that poll will stay up but why not pop over and have your vote while it does? One fails to see why Inverness folk should be allowed a vote on Independence for Nairn however :-)

"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.

Affordable housing in Nairn – who gets it?

Perhaps it is slightly ironic that the Community Council that represents the most affluent area of Nairn should so often be the one that speaks up for the rights of less well-off Nairnites but so it was again on Wednesday night when the subject of affordable housing in Nairn appeared on the agenda. Graham Vine started the debate:

“I’ve had great difficulty trying to get consistent stories out of Highland Council. One of the questions that we were asking is whether people in Nairn get priority and I got a sort of Civil Service answer. Yes people with a local connection, if you have got a lad with a new wife in the back bedroom of his mum & dad’s house with a baby they get priority but their priority is 30 points and somebody that has landed in Inverness and is homeless has a priority of 70 points. So somebody with no connection to Nairn has a much greater priority than a family in Nairn that is overcrowded in one back bedroom.” Graham thought it was a bit of a con and added, “Yes you do get priority but you are 8^th in line not 1^st in line.” He summed it up, “When affordable housing becomes available it’s not going to be for Nairn folk, it’s going to be for homeless people from all over the Highlands or even the Central Belt.”

Brian Stewart commented:”If this is something where each Regional Council has any sort of discretion as to the weighting they give to the various different factors then one obvious things for us to argue is that the formula, or allocation of points, the weighting given, should be more significantly influenced by the local resident element, in other words we could presumably argue for a shift in the formula.”

Graham Vine said a little later: “If you force out the younger generation because they can’t get a house then who’s going to look after the mum and dad when they are 80, if the kids who might have been fifty and living in Nairn somewhere else because they couldn’t find anywhere else in Nairn to live?”

Tommy Hogg, (River CC observer at the meeting) stated: “But it’s always been the way, it’s been doctored so much now it’s just commonplace and people just accept it and the Council are getting away with murder.”

“Well let’s do something about it!” Exclaimed the Chair, Rosemary Young. The West CC then decided to take the item forward to the joint meeting of CCs on the 11^th of July and to simultaneously further research the subject with a view to vigorously lobbying for changes in the policy.

Well done the West folk, it is monstrously unfair that local people are effectively well down the queue for affordable housing in Nairn. Not so long ago we had a housing manager in Nairn and the Nairn District Council decided who got a house – it was all done within the boundaries of Nairnshire. It is worth reflecting just how much influence we have lost over our own affairs under the rule of Highland Council. Yes, well done indeed the West folk and here’s wishing them all the best in getting further backing from the other community councils at the joint CC meeting. “Let’s do something about it!” said Rosemary Young – yes let’s do something about that and the other issues facing Nairn and Nairnshire in general. Freedom for Nairnshire! – End Inverness rule!

Can we have our town back please?

Contributed to the Gurn by Iain Fairweather :

(Update: 18/10/08 further support for Iain, see below and in comments)

In recent years there have been numerous developments in Nairn. Some good, some not so good. There have been bold plans for the town centre. Yet once again these have been stymied because they are too closely aligned with the fortunes of supermarket chains. Perhaps it's time to consider other options. Developers, while correctly going through the right channels, appear to sneaked a few projects under the noses of community councils, or that's how it seems. Some residents are beginning to feel disenfranchised. Decisions which will affect our town and our lifestyles are being made by those who may have a degree of vested interest. Numerous ad hoc developments seem to pop up with regularity and we wonder if anyone has an over-arching vision for Nairn. Is there a long-term plan or are we just being buffeted by external forces, whether developer, elected representative or even Highland Council? An increasing number of residents are worried about where it's all heading, so can we please have their town back?

In principle I am not against redevelopment. I'm for anything that improves our lot and results in Nairn being an even better place to live. But we seem to be subject to various random projects that adversely impact on our way of the life or on the kind of town we want to live in. It's not easy to step back and take a long-term view of the kind of town we want to become. Perhaps it's about time we got together to develop a vision for the future and plan a 10-year project. Nairn has a lot going for it and there are new festivals and events drawing visitors to the town. Is there anything further we can develop to give Nairn a unique appeal? What building developments do we actually need and how can we stimulate the improvement of the High St.? Given a blank sheet, what kind of town centre do we need in order to deliver the kind of town we want to live in and attract visitors to? A new shopping complex may be good but does it need to be a supermarket? Could it be something that would see numerous small retail or specialist businesses established and thus attract more visitors?

The new Visit Nairn Tourism Association recognises the importance of bringing people to Nairn. Too often they only come for an overnight stay. Isn't it about time Nairn became a destination rather than an overnight dormitory? We have golf, walking, a rich history and the classical Scottish experience all waiting to be developed and marketed around the globe. But if we do attract more visitors, what are they coming to? Will we be able to deliver a positively memorable Scottish experience? Or will the dilapidated High St be their lasting memory? Without tourists our future is bleak and it is within this context than town planning needs to take place. Too many schemes are decided purely on a project by project basis. They need to be looked at together with impact assessments on how each will affect the whole. Too many new developments of the wrong type will adversely Nairn as a serious Highland holiday destination. Could we even end up living in a town that we no longer enjoy being part of?

When we ask about getting money for this project or that we are generally told that there is nothing in the budget. Well let's look again at the budget. Perhaps money is not being spent in the right areas and we, the town's people, would like to have more say about what our money is spent on. If there is no funding for something then let's find some creative ways to get the funding. The Community Centre is a shining example of what can be done. If the planners have got it wrong then perhaps it's time we told them how to get it right. Is too much being imposed from above instead of arising from within? Perhaps, we have for too long believed that others would look after our interests and we haven't engaged in ways we ought to have done. But we have now been dispossessed and we see things happening we are not happy about. There are many things over which we feel we have no control. The people of Nairn need a new platform to debate issues of key importance to us all. So to the people of Nairn I say, "let's get together again as a community and take greater responsibility for our town". To those who'd rather keep control, we say, "give it back to the people - please!"

Update: 18/10/08

Support for Iain from 'Nairn Bairn':

'Iain Fairweather's comments are perceptive and his appeal for a fresh approach is compelling. His post should be reproduced on the front page (or editorial column)of the less-than-inspiring local newspaper, and pinned to the door of every local elected representative!His analysis highlights the dysfunctional nature of local administration and decision-making. The successful evolution and development of the town needs three things: vision, resources, and the powers to decide and to implement. At present the public authorities who have the power (Highland Council and other public bodies) have limited resources, priorities elsewhere, and precious little vision. Most of the time they appear to do little but acquiesce in, or obstruct, the initiatives of others. Those who have the resources (mainly private landowners and developers - from Cawdor to Deveron to Pettifer) are inevitably driven by the profitability of the specific investment they propose, with scant regard for "the wider picture". And incidentally the inclusion of affordable housing or childrens' playgrounds as the price for inappropriately-intensive urban development and as a sop to supposed public opinion, misses the point and compounds the problem.

There are clearly some like Iain (and the Gurn...) who have - or would like to see emerge - a vision of Nairn as a pleasant, vibrant place with a thriving town centre, a diverse range of shops and activities both commercial and recreational. Nairn cannot be an industrial centre, and should not become a dormitory suburb of Inverness. It needs to reclaim its proper identity - which as Iain says, largely revolves around tourism. Creating an environment that draws in visitors, and gives them decent facilities and an interesting range of things to see and do, will enhance the quality of life for residents too.

Problem is, it seems that those who have the power and resources don't seem to share this vision. Supermarket chain stores, cheap and charmless housing blocks, bleak carparks, and crowded highways won't deliver it.

So Iain is right: there needs to be a new coalition in the Nairn community. Getting a unified Community council, as Gurn suggests, would indeed be a useful first step. And getting elected councillors to act with some sort of coherence and vigour in pursuit of such a vision would be progress indeed...'