Development in recent times

More pictures from Tommy here of sites that have been developed in recent times. Individual images here.

More way back when

Thanks to Tommy for these two interesting pictures. If the bus station application goes ahead and the flats get built it wouldn't be the first time that flats were built on a garage site in Nairn. Just across the river from this eventual development site the controversial Maggot Flats were also built on a former garage. It is interesting to note the lack of tree cover on the east bank of the river in these two images, they will enlarge a little.

UPDATE: The images published above have prompted Joe Telfer to send the Gurn a picture of the new building just prior to completion. Interesting comments coming in too.

Jac's old house and field - the ideal site for more allotments?

The following pictures sent to the Gurn by Murray inspired this observer to go and see how the planning application for houses on Jac's plot was proceeding. Murray told the Gurn how sad the house looked. Indeed anyone who remembers that cheerful household, so Italian but at the same time so undeniably Nairnshire, will agree with that. In a short space of time nature has claimed back much of the site and what seemed so much a permanent institution and part of the local landscape has all but vanished.

Still pending consideration from the Highland Council planning system is the application for five houses on Jac's house and field on the Forres Road. The land is now the property of some sort of trust or other and after what seems to have been several years of hiatus the trust has come forward with a planning application.

The application has attracted several objections from nearby residents who are concerned mainly with the effect on the wildlife that has now established itself on the site and the road safety issues that will arise with vehicles attempting to access the A96. The Nairn Woodlands and Wetlands Association suggests:

'An alternative eco-friendly use for this site may be more appropriate and the Trustees may consider allotments managed by the Nairn Allotment Society with no vehicular access from the A96.'

That sounds like a very good alternative for this valuble piece of habitat (as long as the mature trees were kept). As Nairn grows it will need to keep a few green spaces and this is indeed an ideal spot. Jac was a keen gardener whenever he got a spare moment and what a fitting tribute to him an allotment site named after him would be! You can see the planning application and the objections here.

Developing Nairn - as seen from the public benches

You’ve probably already read Archie Tect’s take on Wednesday night’s events. Yes the Scottish Government demands that Councils have development plans and thus land gets zoned for housing. The trouble is that quite a few folk in Nairn think that too much had been zoned and they made representations to the plan in an effort to get the amounts of land zoned reduced. The Highland Council planners claimed to have reflected this concern in the latest draft of the plan but it became evident last night that there is still much concern in Nairn about the scale of the proposed housing areas that will be designated around Nairn. It isn’t all over yet, we get the chance to make more representations and after that if people are still unhappy it will go to a Scottish Government reporter.

It does all come down to a numbers game but the punters as well as the planners can play that too and last night it was Lorraine Thomson, the seasoned Sandown campaigner, who took Highland Council to task on their own statistics. At times Mr MacLeod himself seemed to be a little baffled by his own figures – what chance have the rest of us got then you might ask? Anyway, if you build houses it is a good idea to provide jobs to go with them, here’s what Lorraine asked towards the end of the proceedings.

“Again I’ll address this to Malcolm, again looking at your figures, for the area for Nairn, from Nairn, Croy, Ardersier, Cawdor, Tornagrain and Stratton, your own figures, you’re projecting 16 hundred and ten homes over a five year period, that’s 1610, what guarantees or what can you tell us about employment that’s going to come to actually feed these 1610 houses?”
Malcolm MacLeod was quick to reply, “A fair question and the answer is if that if these houses were being, you know these houses will not be built, you know I’m not saying that 1610 houses are definitely going to be built in 5 years, if I could do that you know I wouldn’t be doing this job.” Malcolm continued and gave quite a long reply, here’s some more of it: “No developer is going to build houses unless there is a market for them and people buying houses it stands to reason that there will be jobs to support them so you know I can’t point out exactly where the jobs are going to be we hope that things will pick up at Inverness Airport Business Park which has planning permission. There has just been planning permission granted in East Inverness for a really significant development in terms of work opportunities, you know supermarket, commercial space, office space so we can’t guarantee that they’re going to be built but if they are and if opportunities do come along and this area does continue to grow then at least there will be the house sites there that have been planned effectively at least we know the infrastructure will be able to bear them that’s our job”

Thus as Archie Tect says, it all gets indicative, estimates, aspirational etc.
Lorraine had another question: “I did a count of the number of houses for sale in the housing market area in Nairn just in the last two weeks and there’s over 350 houses for sale in the housing market area for Nairn and you are suggesting that we build another 846?”
This is really where the lay person starts to scratch his/her head, there is indeed no shortage of housing for sale in Nairn so why do we need to be in such a hurry to allow so much land to be developed?

Here Sandy jumped in with his take on the process, ”Could I maybe come in here just to answer your question, you’re probably absolutely right, 300 houses for sale there may be no need to build houses but, the big but is, you have to have a very forward thinking plan so that things are in place. You stop and think the last 20, 30 years Inverness has doubled from 30,000 to 60,000 and people say where’s all the employment coming? People used to say travel into Inverness, Inverness will join Balloch one day, well it has basically. Where is all the employment, unless when people are making inward investment, I have various meetings at Scottish Government level for inward investment into the Highlands, renewable energy is the massive big one that we’re thinking just now which could be massive, when the oil industry was here in the early seventies with the oil yards there was 12,000 people worked in the oil industry a lot of these people are working all over the world now.” Sandy also claimed that this type of forward planning helped Nairn’s case for a by-pass.

There was a lot more said last night Gurnites, much of it was in planning speak terms in the form of Malcolm MacLeod’s responses, there were smiles and laughs at times but still deep concerns. Where do we go from here? This observer imagines that the Community Councils, particularly Suburban and West will give worried citizens the chance to articulate their concerns and input them into the next stage of the Plan’s journey towards transformation into tablets of stone.

'A different clientele'

At last night's Ward Forum on the Development Plan (more on that soon Gurnites, particularly a few comments on the numbers game that seems to revolve around the projected numbers of houses) a member of the public was concerned about the clash next week between Scotia's Masterplan Modelling workshop summing up meeting and the Ward Forum (Weds 6th) on the Town Centre Plan B proposals.

Louise Clark's response on the behalf of the Ward Forum was interesting:

"I’m afraid that Scotia didn’t have the foresight to me and I actually knew nothing about it until Cllr Graham (Marsden) mentioned it quite by chance and then I did speak to planning but by that time we had the adverts out and we had the papers ready and I did speak to Scotia as well to say well look there is a clash and they decided, well they said very oddly, 'We have different clientele', which I think was the wrong thing to say. However, they were advised by me that there was a clash but from our point of view they just didn’t speak to us in time, simple as that."

A different clientele? What could they possible mean by that? Scotia's numbers could well be sharply down as many will opt to go to the very important meeting concerning the town centre (including we expect, many of the usual suspects).

Airport development good for Nairn?

Brian and Nairnbairn discuss over at My Nairn.

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...'