Snow clearing in Nairnshire - time for a 'back to the future' approach with Protocols à la 1936?

Thanks again to Gurnite 'MR Archive' who has sent this interesting document. It will enlarge and shows you how Nairnshire coped in the past long before the Highland Council was ever invented. Would it be far better if the County's resources were once again put under local control with the help of volunteers?

To see the rules of engagement for all volunteers see here, to see who the good citizens that gave their time to help were please see here and here on images posted on Flickr.

The same idea could work both in the town and the County? Once we have a single Community Council for Nairn perhaps they and the other councils in Nairnshire could make this type of self-help organisation a reality once more. All we will see from Highland Council in the future will be more cuts. The people of Nairnshire are the only ones with the solutions now!

Freedom for Nairnshire! Saor Siorrachd Nàrainn!

Have a good one and see you all in 2010. Oidhche mhath a chàirdean!

Streetscape? Who needs it? Time for a 'back to the future' approach?

Thanks to 'MR Archive' a gurnite who sent in this picture from the early 70's showing how traffic managed to go up and down the High Street and still allow parking on both sides. Is it just all the wobbly bits and fancy street furniture that cause all the problems for lorry drivers and the rest of us? Is a fresh look at the plans needed before anything else goes ahead?

As Grow to sow would say, 'e-mailed in from a Granny Smith's'

Hogmany cancelled in Inverness

Nairn still up for it however. Seems things are really bad in the big city, queues miles long to get in but you can still get out however according to an eyewitness. More about the big let-down on the beeb. 

Brae danger - lessons to be learned for streetscape 2010?

The money spent on the brae was meant to make the area safer for pedestrians but this picture illustrates what now happens regularly. If a large vehicle is in the loading bay then quite often other lorries and vans have to mount the pavement to pass. The lorry in the bay had parked as close to the kerb as possible too. Quite often vehicles passing will not only be on the pavement but very clost to the fabric of buildings on the other side of the street. We've gurned about this before and wonder if one day part of this improvement will simply have to be ripped up and restored to the original layout?

The picture will enlarge (please note we have obscured any marks that would identify this lorry, it isn't the fault of the drivers, what are they supposed to do when they see that there isn't enough room to get by - reverse out onto the A96 and look for another route?)

Let's hope that the road will be left wide enough in other parts of the High Street to avoid this situation being repeated as the next phase of the streetscape gets started in the summer of 2010.

N.B. Previous Gurn article and comments about the Streetscape project here.

Tuilleadh sneachd 29/12/09 More snow

Some Gurn snow pictures again, really only for those that haven't seen enough yet.

Nairn runs out of table salt - time for some 'out of the box' thinking?

The yellow gritting box in Ballark place - many of these handy boxes around town are now empty too.

This morning Radio Scotland reported that Nairn shops had run out of table salt as citizens try to keep areas close to their homes clear of snow. The situation is getting very difficult in many parts of the town and as this article is blogged further heavy snow falls on the area. The Highland Council is simply overwhelmed and, as reported in the Nairnshire, the Wee County now only has 3 gritting lorries instead of 4 and vacancies in the roads Nairn department have not been filled due to the cuts. Cuts that will only get worse in the years to come. According to Lib Dem councillor David Alston (quoted in the Sunday Times):

'Over the next three years we need to make savings of £60m. This will require a reduction in staff of about 12 per cent. We have a workforce of almost 10,000 so we are talking about 1,000 jobs.'

Elected councillors are simply reduced to the role of axemen and women. So the next time we have bad weather a lot more men and machinery could have been paid off. What is to be done as the local authority's power to help its citizens and council tax payers disintegrates before our eyes? Time for a new approach? Could a body of volunteers be recruited? A network that could be used in times of weather emergency and alerted by text and e-mail. Contractors could deliver loads of salt to designated sites around the town and volunteers could spread the salt with shovels and barrows?

What is the alternative for the future? Just give up and allow the elderly and those more vulnerable in our society to be prisoners in their own homes, with even the able bodied unable to walk safely on pavments or get their cars onto the diminishing number of roads that are open and safe to drive?

If the council is in the process of giving up is it time for the citizens to take more responsibility?

Luxury mobile phones for council staff?

'Councils run up ‘staggering’ Blackberry bill' says the Press and Journal and our local authority gets a mention:

'Highland Council has issued 141 handsets to staff at all levels since 2007, with the annual contract cost sitting at about £228 per handset. This year's total bill is expected to be about £32,000.'

Full details on the P&J site: Thousands of pounds being spent on luxury mobile phones for staff.

A mishap on the pontoons (as predicted)

Pictures will enlarge - you can see the drips on the guy on the left. The first photograph shows a gentleman, dripping wet up to the waist, who had just moved to get a better vantage point to observe the swans from another part of the pontoon and then had fallen into the water. The ice actually broke his fall and saved him from complete immersion and his three companions were on hand to pull him out. The mishap over, he retreated to a nearby vehicle and a quick change of clothing.

At the last ward forum meeting Graham Vine and Tommy Hogg had called for gates to be installed on the pontoons as a matter of urgency. Sandy Park told the meeting that he had the matter in hand. Better move fast Sandy. The guy in the picture got off with a bit of a fright and there were folk on hand to help. What if it had been a lone child with no one nearby? It doesn't look as though it would be easy to pull oneself out. Action please before there is a serious accident!

27/12/09

A Few more pictures from 27/12/09 here.

Evening 23/12/09 Feasgar