Graeme writes to the Gurn

Hello Gurn,

As a frequent visitor to your blog, and regular visitor to Nairn I thought I'd try to make a contribution by emailing you some photographs that I took over this past weekend. Playing around with my camera, I had a lovely walk along the pier and snapped the harbour in all its glory on my way back. I headed along to the bandstand to get a wee pic of it but my tripod wasn't playing ball so this was my best attempt. The swimmer that can just about be made out, jumped in from the pier on Sunday morning and swam towards the Nairn Golf Club then back. Freezing water, cold day, strong winds !! Top marks to the guy. Heard it mentioned that he was in training to swim the 12 miles across the firth.
A couple of snaps are from Cawdor's Living Food event which seemed to pull in good numbers despite inclement weather. Over 50 stalls selling a variety of fantastic local produce from venison to shellfish, chocolate to whisky, jam to organic burgers. We had a great day out and the kids even enjoyed dancing in the rain !
A walk along the river showed how green most of the trees still are. Is autumn retreating a bit this year ? The banks were absolutely covered in this plant ( some kind of balsam ? ) which seems to have overtaken at points. My daughter enjoyed popping the seed pods on our way round.
Anyway, feel free to use any or none of my snaps and keep up the good work, I really enjoy your blog, it keeps me up to date with all the local news and gossip.

Regards,
Graeme

Thanks Graeme, good work, that's the kind of input we're very happy to receive at the Gurn. Gurnites can see a full-scale slide show here. Graeme obviously encountered the Himalayan Balsam around the river, now going to seed. Still the Highland Council have done nothing and the seed from this year's bumper crop will probably completely overwhelm the native species next year if nothing is done. It is a very beautiful plant yes, but we could do with a lot less of it if the native habitat is to remain a native habitat.

Nairnshire property market under Sunday Times microscope

'In Nairnshire both location and price are keen drivers of price. Nairn enjoys an excellent reputation as a base for Highland golfing excursions and for holiday lets. There is also a huge demand for flats, from landlords and locals, and where there is an attractive view on offer, properties are breaking local records.
However, Nairn and district remains price-sensitive. It is increasingly a dormitory suburb for priced-out Inverness commuters and English relocators; local wages cannot keep pace with recent price hikes. '

You can read the full Sunday Times article here.

It is against this background of local wages not keeping pace with housing prices that the controversial Maggot Road flats will be built. Whatever your view about the project it is too late to stop it now. Yes they will be large and the controversy continues, led by the Nairn Concerned Residents Association, but if you were someone unable to afford a house in your home town, would you be so worried that the buildings were out of character? How long will it be before someone on Nairn's housing waiting list stands up to criticise the critics?

No matter how objectionable some folk may find these flats there are millions of people in this world who can only dream of such accomodation close to the beach and the river in a holiday town. Let's hope however, in future we can build homes with gardens for the folk on the housing list and not too many more blocks of flats. Nairn will grow but let's do our best to keep it a great place to live!Everything prepared for work to start on the controversial project that will provide badly needed housing in Nairn.

Day out in the Capital

Edinburgh City 2 Nairn County 0

If there was a pivotal moment in this scrappy Scottish Cup tie it was when Brian MacLeod missed a penalty for Nairn and the ten man opposition finally found their home ground feet and went on to score another gaol and contain the County.

If the team had a bad day then perhaps the fans still enjoyed the occasion of a big day out. Edinburgh City have their home in the Meadowbank Stadium and you can’t help feeling that the Ghost of Meadowbank Thistle FC lingers around like like some hidden silent help – the soccer club equivalent of a Randall and Hopkirk situation? Even the steward wears a fluorescent jacket with the letters MTFC no 12 on the back. One of the fans wore a T-shirt with the legend ‘Franchise Football, Never Forgive, Never Forget!’ A reference to the chancers that stole their club , took it out of town and called it Livingston FC. It was good to see these ordinary football fans, the very backbone of soccer just like many of the Nairn faithful, being able to continue their dream of running a football club with real roots in the community. And their dream went a little further yesterday as they proceeded in the Scottish Cup and Nairn packed theirs back into the kit boxes for the 150 mile journey home.
It’s a great stadium but a shame that the fans are so far away from the action, with a running track and a sprint track and another strip of grass between them and the action, sort of a park’s distance away from the park. It lead to a kind of detached feeling that gave extra impetus to the terrace banter, the Nairn fans were having a better time of it than the players and they went home with the bottle of whiskey that was offered as a prize in the half-time raffle.
Back to the nuts and bolts of bread and butter Highland League now, hoping that the 2-0 doing was just an aberration and Fridge’s boys will recover their regular poise and resume their hard-working routine.

LIb Dem survey

The LibDems are engaged in a survey/propaganda exercise in Nairnshire at the moment and you will probably have received this leaflet through the door. It is nice to be asked what you think needs doing and maybe other parties might like to try it. Hard to know if the Lib Dems could do any better for Nairn if we suddenly had a Lib Dem government. Would a Nairn by-pass be the at the top of their legislative programme?

The Lib Dems are, however, part of the Rainbow coalition on Highland Council and we don't seem to be getting much at all out of that particular set-up these days. Still well done Graham for trying, we need more of this type of thing. Perhaps Convenor Sandy will do one next?

Sainsbury's set to stay the course

Sainsbury's are Nairn's favourtite supermarket and they haven't lifted a sod at Balmakeith yet. Yes they want to come here and make money but the Gurn can only get misty-eyed and state that it seems that the community and Sainsbury's have already formed a special bond. Great news then that they have today once again stated their commitment to come to Nairn despite the adversities that the planning process seems to be throwing up.

In response to the Scottish Ministers' decision to call-in the Pettifer and Sainsbury's proposals for Nairn, Brian Pettifer, Chairman of Pettifer Estates, said today,"We are hugely disappointed by this decision, not least on behalf of our many supporters in the Nairn area who helped us to convince the council planning committee to accept unanimously our proposals in August. However I would like to send a clear message to the local community that we remain 100% committed to bringing the first Sainsbury's store in the Highlands to Nairn by bringing our case to the Public Inquiry. We would urge our supporters to join us in calling for the Inquiry to be heard as soon as possible and with the minimum of delay." A spokesperson for Sainsbury's added, " We echo this disappointment but also remain fully committed with Pettifer, our development partners, to bringing a Sainsbury's to Nairn where we have secured unprecedented support from local residents. We have confidence that our proposals are right for Nairn and the Highlands and look forward to presenting our case to bring investment, jobs and improved shopping to the people of Nairn. "

Give Way

A recent visitor to Nairn described the town as 'horrifyingly quaint'
AyeRight reckons part of it is now horrifyingly fake
Fake Victorian lampposts, and hanging basket brackets were at one level of bad taste, but in the latest lighting revamp in the Fishertown we are seeing modern day street signs stuck on fake Victorian light poles - why? I'm not sure that the Victorians had traffic signs (Road name plaques yes) but to marry old with new in this way beggars belief. I dread to think what will come next, plastic horse droppings, cobbled streets, no services (Water, electricity, gas, phones etc). I'm afraid to write in case I give somebody ideas! Please stop it, it doesn't even look twee just bad, and to boot the Fishertown is now covered with badly filled in trenches post the fake Victorian lighting install. Give way? I give up!

AyeRight helps with the weekly shop

I'm not a big fan of any supermarket, but with the news that the Nairn Sainsbury store might well be later rather than sooner Gurnites might like to try their hand at on-line shopping? Both Tescos and Asda will deliver to Nairn, Tescos being slightly cheaper at £3.50, whereas Asda is £4.00 (Note charges rise to £5 or so at popular times). The delivery charge even at it's most expensive is less than fuel for my car or public transport to and from the nearest stores. Shopping on- line might be further good news for your purse as well, especially if you write a message list first and just buy what you need. http://www.tesco.com/ http://www.asda.co.uk/corp/home.html Despite it's limited appeal compared to larger supermarket groups the Co-op has released promising sales figures today. It would seem that more of us are just popping up the street for our messages rather than driving to the bigger supermarkets Food for thought as it sure ain't going to get any cheaper

Make sure you treat Gladys Pearson like Royalty on the 25th!

A first for the Gurn - a Birthday Greeting request.

IF YOU SEE GLADYS PEARSON
ON SEPT.25/08 MAKE SURE YOU
TREAT HER LIKE ROYALTY FOR
HER 90TH BIRTHDAY!

YOUR FAMILY OVERSEAS WISHES
YOU THE BEST BIRTHDAY EVER AND
MANY MORE TO COME! XXX

Serious delay to Sainsbury plan as application 'Called in'

We'll have to wait and see how the implications impact on the Pettifer/Sainsbury plan for Balmakeith but there will certainly be a lot of disappointed people in Nairn today as the letter below gets pushed through letterboxes all over Nairnshire.

Looks like we'll all be driving to Forres and Inverness for a while yet - condemned to leave town in search of the basic choice of food that other communities take for granted.

Council workers return to Courthouse picket line

Once again local council workers take to the streets to prove their point. Passing motorists were showing their support this morning by honking their car horns. (picture will enlarge)