Pilgrimage - swannie signs up

Tonight the Gurnmeister met swannie the newest member of the pilgrimage team. A few more pictures on the gurn flickr vault. Bill recently walked passed the festival and shares his thoughts and also a few pictures on his blog.

New town bus service launched

The 159 will run from the Cinema of Dreams Maggot terminus to the 'End of the Line' up at the Supermarket of Dreams fantasy planning game site and will stop at Ashers to allow public inquiry lawyers to get their coffee and sandwiches.

Still no room to get by

Despite the lorry driver trying out a bit of the pavement on the brae the car behind still couldn't proceed. The brae was meant to be safer now wasn't it?

Nairn - Capturing the hope and the despair

Morning Gurnites, I was going to start the day with a reminder that there has been a lot of material published on the Gurn this week and that it was worth a scroll down to see some of this, especially the letter from Shuan MacDonald. However a comment from Nairnbairn on another thread achieves this purpose and thus, we post that comment in its own right.

'This and the preceding blog once again capture both the hope and the despair that so many of us feel about what is happening in Nairn. Shaun Macdonald's impassioned plea - and the comments it has inspired - show the imagination and the positive thinking that is typical of those many people who want to see Nairn become a better and more attractive place. Such sentiments inspire hope.

Then in the very next blog, we read of the reality. Proof that - as had been predicted - closure of the local planning office has sown confusion among officials (and even developers' agents!) and caused inconvenience to residents. Local concern that this Water Lane proposal may herald similar unwelcome development bids on other "spare land" in future. And a not unreasonable suspicion that yet another High Street landmark (Woolies) might end up as flats.

So hope rapidly turns to despair. While the positive thinkers offer ideas (arts centre, galleries, whatever), the developers are busy trying to exploit the opportunities that arise because of the absence of a coherent plan and vision for the regeneration of Nairn.

What will it take to mobilise the town into taking creative, positive, constructive action to revive the town centre? As Shaun pointed out, some (Book & Arts, Jazz, etc) are doing what they can. But where is the civic leadership which this town needs?

I was reminded of lines from a TS Eliot poem:

"Between the idea

And the reality

Between the motion

And the act

Falls the Shadow..."

And the title of the poem from which this comes....?

"The Hollow Men". '

Numpties, Spills, tests and sewerage

A poor quality result for the period that coincided with oil finding its way down the drains. Sepa seem to think this test was once again the result of water quality from the river impacting on the situation. But it is a coincidence that it coincided with the offence alledgedly committed by youths?

The details appeared in the press:

' A large quantity of used cooking oil was poured into the Nairn drainage system in early July, smothering the treatment works and disrupting the organic process used to digest sewage and disperse clean water in the Moray Firth. Only due to the quick thinking of Scottish Water staff was a serious pollution event prevented. '

The full press release is available on the Highland Council site here. The Numpties that put the oil down the drains, whoever they were, are not only putting the physical health of the community in danger by affecting the smooth running of the sewerage works but also affecting the economic health of the community by risking the reputation of Nairn's beaches.

Having said that we can't ignore the state of the river however and yesterday the Gurn received a complaint of a strong sewerage smell at the foot of the west pier, a picture accompanied the complaint.

Smell and appearance don't mean it is sewerage contamination, there could be other reasons but keep an eye on this area gurnites and what's coming down the river in general. Remember how things were earlier in July even with no heavy rainfall.

Numpties we can prehaps deal with but the river situation will take a lot more investment and thought.

The Cawdor gathering is nigh!

But tickets for the dance could be going as quickly as those for the Pilgrimage and even Strictly Belly Dancing so another obvious case of having to book early to avoid disappointment. Lots going on up the road on the 29th of August. All details on the Gurn What's On.

There's a welcome for them - whether they are on the pull or not!

The Maggot this afternonn and no pilgrims or pilgrimage machine or Tilda in sight yet. Perhaps the sign went up in the wrong place?
More gurning later, after dark about sewerage, oil down the drains terrrorists and more sewerage and testing, plus news from Angus up at Cawdor about a 'gathering'.

No town centre regeneration cash for Nairn

Just in from one of the regular Gurnites:

'Nairn Lucked out of the draw for town centre regeneration funds - Dingwall got it for the highland. It seems a little unfair that Highland was only allocated one town whilst North Ayreshire got three.'

Details of the lucky winners can be found on this Riaghaltas na h-Alba webpage.

Water Lane planning application for Woolworths site will have to be resubmitted under Scottish Government's new planning rules!

Gurnites will remember the details published on the Gurn concerning the proposal for 5 town houses on the rear of Woolworths Nairn. Well alert gurnite Iain noticed a flaw in the report concerning the notice to neighbours. He said in a comment on Sunday evening:

'Did no one tell them that the Area Planning Office at 88 High Street (Barron House) had closed? Or am I missing something? If I am right then a new batch of letters will be required.'

This information was forwarded to Provost Liz who relayed the concern to the appropriate planning officer for his action. The result was that by 9.30 a.m. the next morning, Dave Polson, the local area Planning and Building Standards manager, had agreed with Iain's analyis. He said in an e-mail back to Liz that was copied to a concerned resident:

'The application has arrived in the office, but we do not consider it contains sufficient information. Also, as pointed out, the neighbour notification has not been undertaken correctly and this invalidates the application.
It will be sent back to the agent, who will be asked to re-submit. As and when it is re-submitted, neighbour notification will have to be undertaken by the Council. The responsibility falls to us as of today. Also, we would wish to have the application advertised.'

Well done Highland Council in ensuring fair play to the local residents. The Gurn can also reveal that another resident of Water Lane headed for that closed planning office when served with the neighbour's notice. She found it shut and headed for the Courthouse. The Courthouse staff had no copy of the application and were even unaware of its existence. They pointed her in the direction of Inverness. A worried resident then had to travel through to seek a copy of the detailed plans in Inverness. Concerned community councillors predicted that this might happen when the Nairn planning office closed and it looks like, for this application at least, that fear became a reality. Only time will tell if other Nairn residents will have to suffer the same indignity.

Another interesting fact concerning this application is that it will have to be submitted under the Scottish Government's new planning guidelines. Mr Polson makes reference to this in his e-mail. Now developers have to carry out proper consultation with locals and according to the BBC site:

'The responsibility to notify neighbouring landowners about applications falls on planning authorities, rather than developers. Ministers expect authorities to do this "as soon as possible" after an application is validated, while neighbours now have 21 days, rather than the previous 14, to raise any concerns. '

Full details on these changes over on the BBC webpages.

Water Lane residents are waiting on a new application being submitted. One of them told the Gurn:

'Folk throughout the town should pay attention to this plan. If the like of this gets the go-ahead in Water Lane then the floodgates will be open for anything on any spare bit of ground anywhere in the town.'

More news as it happens gurnites.

'Surely as a town we should aim high?' An artist's perspective

Fellow Gurnites, today the Gurn has received a letter from Shuan MacDonald. If you care about your town please read his thoughts and suggestions about what we could do for the future.

Dear Gurn,
As a Nairn born Professional Artist, involved in both Visual Arts Education at Hons Degree Level, running the local Artists Studio Provision and advising and assisting within the Visual Arts arm of the Nairn Book and Arts festival I read last weeks comments and articles regarding an Arts Centre for Nairn with mixed feelings.

I have visited hundreds of Galleries, Arts Centres and National Collectionsin both Europe and America since leaving Nairn Academy in 1987. It has always been my experience that the best of those did one thing and one thing only and did it really well. In New York I once bought a two in one train ticket from Central Station that got me on the train and admitted me to the Dia Collection some 80 minutes up the Hudson River in the town of Beacon. I was amazed when I stepped off the train and into a small town the size of Nairn where a converted factory building now housed one of the Worlds best collections of Minimal Art. The Gallery was originally based in the Soho district of New York but was forced out due to high rates, rental costs and lack of space, but still it was busy, the coffee shop, the book shop the grounds where all populated by Art loving Pilgrims with various languages being spoken.

It is an unfortunate symptom of our age that new public buildings are forced to multi task. A year ago the Arts Community and General Public were asked to give their opinion on a preferred site for a proposed new Highland Gallery/Museum or Museum/Gallery (see my point) in Inverness. Things have gone very quiet since then and in light of the current economic climate that is understandable but in my opinion a fundamental mistake is being taken in again coupling these two important but very different facilities. That aside’ currently on many of Scotland’s Islands there are fantastic Art Centres and Galleries delivering innovative and informative programmes of Visual Art, if you’ve ever been lucky enough to visit any of them then like me you have probably left wondering why no such facilities exist in our Highland Capital or even near by. Eden Court does Cinema, Theatre, Dance, Music and no doubt Party Political Conferences very well. However it does not officially deliver a programme of Visual Art, yes there are exhibitions but no Exhibition Officer to curate themso it has reverted to type and now showsin the main volunteered amateur work of very mixed quality that on most occasions is ineptly hung and not worth the trip upstairs. By all accounts little in the way of support is given to the exhibiting artists who are even forced to supplement the venue by having to purchase the wine for their openings exclusivelyfrom the venue itself at £13 per bottle per cheapest bottle. The overall result is Visual Art done on the cheap and this does nothing to inspire or encourage the future generations of Highland Artists who until recently were forced to leave the area to study Fine Art to Hons Level and who still must travel to see quality exhibitions and exhibit their ownwork.

The development of an infrastructure to encourage the visual arts and in turn educate and grow a visual arts audience in Inverness and it surrounding towns and suburbs is prohibited by the lack of affordable empty buildings or space on which to build a gallery proper. This problem is coupled a real lack of vision or ambition regarding such provision. By this I mean, think about the old Tesco building behind the multi storey car park at the Bus Station a big empty well lit building with lots of floor and storage space as well as a ready made car park, next to the train station, the Bus Station’ oh and the college. It’s still empty even after a redevelopment that probably hasn’t even paid for yet.

Nairn is surely a contender for such a facility, I read each week about the empty Bus Station, Rosebank Church, Regal Cinema, Ballerina Ballroom, the Supermarket chains and Housing Developers holding us to ransom. Arguments put forward by Local Councillors that the “The town centre site is now too small for a supermarket”mean we must all now become out of town shoppers placing more pressure on a road that seems unlikely to be suddenly eased by miracle by pass which no doubt would open up vast tracks of land for even more speculative development really irk. Has no one else ever been to a supermarket with additional rooftop or lower ground parking? Beautiful Tuscan towns and Edinburgh’s Morningside can live with them then why couldn’t we?

At present some Hoteliers regularly warn their guests off the High Street after 7pm, this is appalling and we must stop the rot.

Nairn is currently actively courting a major supermarket chain who sponsor an entire wing of London’s National Gallery, they could be in a position to offer both expertise and finance. We are only some 20 odd minutes away from Inverness and the airport etc, a quarter of the time it took me to get to Beacon to see quite lot of nothing. We must think out of the box if our town is to survive and maintain its own identity out-with Inverness. Each week we read of some new proposal a “Heritage Town”, “University Town” and now an “Arts Town”.

A large gallery could even be made up of a cluster of smaller refurbished (locally architecturally interesting) buildings such as the Rosebank Church, Regal Cinema and the hanger like Bus Station. These smaller buildings could house separate collections or even themed works a little like the National Galleries of Scotland in Edinburgh, Portrait, National, RSA, Gallery Of Modern Art and The Dean only of course on a little smaller scale.

Dundee is in all probability going to soon have its very own branch of the V&A whilst Inverness would probably settle for a C&A. 70% of our Nations Visual Art is currently in storage, it is grated up and held in thermostatically controlled warehouses in Central Scotland where it inspires, educates or moves no-one, as tax payers we even have the pleasure of paying for it to not be seen.This is indeed a sad indictmentof our nation’s value of our cultural and intellectual wealth and heritage.We in the Highlands accommodate the owner of the £100m Titians and the entire Bridgewater collection but sadly none of the work (it’s housed in London and on loan to various public Galleries).

Surely as a Town we should aim high and not impede or mock such aspirations, to offer something of possible National importance that could provide our town with the heart surgery it now needs after years of neglect, indecision and short-termism.

A large amount of our local economy can be attributed to the retired and relocated but also to the tourists that may choose to rent beds elsewhere in the surrounding towns, villages and cities but whom nevertheless come to Nairn for recreation and site-seeing, the beach, to golf, to eat etc. This market is one of the few that is still set to grow as people retire earlier, live longer and work less due to Technological Unemployment.

The Blue Door Studios (BDS) here in Nairn are full (10 artists) and we now have a waiting list of 7, artists who travel in from Fortrose, Inverness, Forres, Elgin and Grantown as currently no alternative long term studio provision exists in any of these areas. The BDS have also provided temporary studio space to artists from Ireland, Spain, Norway, Sweden and Canada the latter of which resulted in a significant donation last year to The Nairn Museum by way of the portrait of “The Watson’s” by Jason Walker. Jason was charged no rent for the 3 months that he was working here and he lived with my family and I, he paid for his own flights and materials and the result is a painting for the people of Nairn by a local artist who has exhibited alongside some of the best living figurative artists in the world including Lucien Freud, Ken Currie, Stephen Conroy, Jim Dine, Frank Aurbach and Chuck Close. In the future that painting will either serve as an act of civic philanthropy to remind us that Nairn once had shops and shopkeepers, as well as a sense of communal pride in its endeavours and the altruism of it citizens and therefore it may truly belong in a Museum.

It could also alternatively be a little acorn like the Cinema of Dreams or the Book and Arts Festival whose greens shoots are now out into the light and should be nurtured.

Artists make works without pay and mostly never even knowing if they will be seen or sell or be valued in any way at any time, it’s a risk, but one they relish and actively pursue. Artists will always do their job’ after all a pencil and some paper cost pennies today but ultimately if commerce wants to profit from their endeavours some of that financial risk will must rest with them.

The Visual Arts have a significant role to play in delivering an educated and socially engaged future population but this is never attained without risk or for free and certainly not by being closed down to any possibilities.

Yours,
Shaun MacDonald